GOProud will kick off its efforts for the 2012 cycle at the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa in August. The conservative, pro-gay rights group plans to have a large presence at the event that traditionally starts the presidential campaign season in the Hawkeye State.

The group boasted in a press release that “GOProud activists and supporters from around the country will be travelling to Ames to participate” in the Aug. 13 poll.

“Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House has been an unmitigated disaster for all Americans, including gay and lesbian Americans,” GOProud Executive Director Jimmy LaSalvia said in a statement. “Defeating Barack Obama and putting a conservative in the White House should be the number one goal of every single person in the conservative movement.”

The group also noted that it is looking “forward to supporting the Iowa GOP” at this event, an important distinction given the controversy surrounding GOProud’s participation at the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year. Some of the annual conservative confab’s participants boycotted the event because CPAC organizers included GOProud in the conference.