Paul Babeu made mention of Ron Paul's
position on gay marriage during his coming out press conference on
Saturday.
The 43-year-old Babeu, the sheriff of
Pinal County, Arizona and a GOP candidate for Congress, acknowledged
he's gay in the course of denying claims made by a former lover in a
story published Thursday by the Phoenix New Times.
The man, a Mexican national identified
only as Jose, claimed that Babeu, a vocal opponent of illegal
immigration who was featured in Senator John McCain's 2010 campaign
ad advocating for greater border security, had threatened him with
deportation when he refused to sign an agreement stating that he
would not discuss their relationship.
At an outdoor news conference in
Florence, Arizona, Babeu called the allegations “absolutely,
completely false, except for the issues that refer to me as being
gay. Because that's the truth. I am gay.”
When asked whether he supports gay
marriage, Babeu danced around the subject, saying he saw it as a
states' rights issue.
“This is an issue not for the federal
government, I see this as, and a lot of people connect this to Ron
Paul, as a states' rights issue. That this should not be an issue
for the federal government. Anything that is not enumerated in the
Constitution would fall to the states.”
Babeu at first suggested that religious
freedoms should supersede personal freedoms: “Personal liberties
and freedoms? Talk about the religious freedoms. Talk about the
freedom of religion and the expression of that. This is a deeply
religious ceremony, an event. Some faiths condone and support it.
Some do not, and are adamantly against it.”
But he appeared to reverse himself
later, saying that he could be an advocate: “If states prohibit
that, that's the issues for the states. I can be a supporter and get
out there and help articulate, as we progress as a culture and as a
society, that there should be individual liberties and there should
be individual freedoms. That for any other person to define somebody
else's relationship and to say that it's not OK – that is not who
we are as Americans.”
Citing his own 20-year military career,
Babeu added that he supports open gay service in the military. (The
video is embedded in the right panel of this page. Visit
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(Related: Paul
Babeu says he's gay; resigns from Mitt Romney campaign.)