Pinal County AZ Sheriff Paul Babeu says he did not threaten his Mexican ex-lover with deportation and, oh yeah, he’s gay.
“I am gay,” Babeu said, but the charges against me are “completely false.”
While it’s remarkable to see a Republican figure of national stature publicly embrace his homosexuality, and give such a forceful conservative defense of gay rights, that’s not the real issue here. As far as we can tell Paul Babeu has never taken any public positions contrary to his now very public homosexuality.
Babeu has always struck me as someone who does what he says he will. Some of the desert in his area is mostly controlled by drug and human smugglers. He’s not real fond of them or of illegals, is an ally of the odious Sheriif Joe Arpaio, and sharply conservative. But he didn’t dodge the gay issue, and that is to be hugely commended.
We will soon know if the allegations against him are true.