 A featured speaker at the conference, Ann Coulter, made controversial remarks at the event, indirectly referring to presidential candidate John Edwards as a "faggot".In an article for "Salon.com", Sanchez discussed how a photograph of him taken at the conference with Coulter brought him to the attention of bloggers, one of whom recognized him as a former pornographic gay film star.In the same article, Sanchez stated that bloggers had compared him to Rich Merritt, author of "Secrets of a Gay Marine Porn Star", and Jeff Gannon, a conservative journalist who was outed as a gay escort.