Conservative porn star kicked out of Turning Point conference
Dani Repass
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Turning Point USA (TPUSA) initially gave VIP status to a conservative porn star at a Florida conference, but then kicked her out following backlash.
“Your daily reminder that pornography is a scourge that destroys marriages and families which are the fundamental bedrock on which people rely instead of big daddy government,” conservative commentator Liz Wheeler tweeted. “So no, porn is not conservative and I can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”
Upon arrival at TPUSA’s ‘Summer Summit’, a conference made up of mostly high school and college-aged students, adult entertainment star and Federalist contributor Brandi Love posed for pictures and was given VIP status. Drama broke out, however, after Love and another attendee appeared in a Snapchat photo together. The backlash intensified after America First Students leader Jaden McNeil posted a message identifying Love on Telegram.
“Imagine sending your kids to [TPUSA’s] conference thinking they’re gonna learn about Christian Conservative values and they come home with photos with pornstars,” McNeil wrote. “There are thirteen-year-old kids at this conference and TPUSA has pornstars as VIPs.”
Quickly following McNeil’s posts, Love was approached both in-person and online by “Groypers”, a loosely organized group of white nationalist supporters of podcaster Nick Fuentes. Shortly thereafter, mainstream conservatives began to voice their concerns as well, mostly in opposition to Love’s attendance, though others said she deserved to be treated with kindness.
“If you’re a Christian conservative organization and [a] porn star shows up to your event to campaign for porn or hand out porn, you kick her out,” conservative radio host Jesse Kelly tweeted. “If she shows up just to attend and listen, you give her a big hug and treat her like gold. This is not hard. I read it somewhere…”
“If a 48-year-old hardcore porn star really wants to listen and learn, there are many forums where she can do that,” conservative commentator Matt Walsh tweeted in response to Kelly. “A conference for conservative teenagers, while wearing a VIP badge, is not the appropriate context.”
Love was banned from the gathering on Saturday night in an email which she posted on Twitter.
“We regret to inform you that your [Student Action Summit] 2021 invitation has been revoked,” the email from TPUSA stated. “This decision is final. This revocation does not impact your application to future events, and we hope that you will consider applying again in the future. Please do not attempt to attend the summit as any attempt to disrupt may affect consideration for future participation.” Love was undeterred, though, and tweeted that the Republican Party is ‘broken’ due to her ban.
“I just watched Charlie Kirk, Dan Bongino, Rick Scott, [and] Kat Timpf, speak about freedom, censorship, how inclusive the “movement” is…and then they had me thrown out of the Turning Point USA conference,” Love tweeted. “The Republican Party is broken.”
Many mainstream conservatives cheered the ban on Love, saying they were happy a porn star didn’t have the opportunity to be around underage students. An opposition group, however, soon arose in defense of Love, with many saying they had no right to comment on someone else’s career choice. Ben Domenech, co-Founder of the Federalist and frequent Fox News guest, tweeted his opposition to Love’s ban.
“I’m disappointed that TPUSA kicked out Brandi Love for no reason whatsoever. She’s a Florida conservative businesswoman who loves America,” Domenech tweeted. “The right has an opportunity to be the big tent party. Don’t be a bunch of prudes. The new standard TPUSA has set for itself is that it will evaluate the moral quality of everyone who buys a ticket to their conferences. There’s no way that could go wrong.”
TPUSA’s Summer Summit is set to conclude on Tuesday, and Love’s ban is still intact as of Monday morning.