Accusations that he threatened an ex-boyfriend, a Mexican national, with deportation if he didn’t sign an agreement which required he not reveal that he and Babeu had been in a relationship, have been denied by the Arizona Sheriff.

Babeu was the Sheriff seen walking with John McCain in the now infamous “just build the dang fence!” ad.  It was noted at the time that Babeu was the Sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona, which does not border Mexico at any point, and is north of Tucson.  He and McCain were in another county filming, using the border fence as a backdrop for the campaign ad.

Babeu held a news conference Saturday, February 18, to address the story and accusations reported in the Phoenix New Times.  That story here. In the news conference, he acknowledges being gay, and denies threatening the former boyfriend.   See the New Times articles for more details about the Sheriff, the ex, the lawyers, and the attempts to salvage the political prospects of a up-to-now rising star in Arizona Republican circles.

My interest in this story is not the Sheriff’s political future, or his right-wing, conservative views.  I’m much more interested in why he hasn’t deleted his Adam4Adam profile!

That’s right!  You’d think he’d have done that right off, and denied ever having one.  After all, it’s really not all that difficult to make one up, post it, and make it seem like it belongs to someone else.  If you wanted to deny it, you could claim someone faked the profile, and was simply trying to smear you.  Babeu appears to be standing tall, now, though, and is basically telling people his private life is none of their business!

As of this writing, this profile was still active on Adam4Adam.com.  The picture is private, so it does not show on the live site, but the profile is still up.  I’m trying to decide if this guy is just not real bright, or if he’s one tough hombre that is quite willing to kick some ass if required.

There are a couple of things I can say about Sheriff Babeu:

He’s hot.

I like his taste in men.

He may have misjudged the likelihood that he’d be outed in his quest for higher office.  Coming from a law enforcement background, he might have come to expect that intimidation and a certain arrogance would suffice to get him what he wanted.  It will be interesting to see if the people of Arizona will find him an anathema and turn him out of politics, or if they find him strong and worthy of respect regardless of his sexual orientation.

Gay politicians have been able to gain public office, but very few have succeeded as an openly gay Republican.  There are plenty of closeted gay GOP members across the country, but very few survive being outed by others or the media, and fewer continue to rise in the ranks.  Will Babeu become Congressman Babeu, or will he end up as dog catcher somewhere?  This will be an interesting thing to watch.

Here’s some more of him, from the NewTimes.

Paul Babeu and Jose, the ex

Yeah, not bad.

Except for all that Republican-wingnut-conservative-arrogant-asshole stuff, of course.

]]> http://queerlandia.com/2012/02/19/azs-build-that-dang-fence-sheriff-outed-accused/feed/ 1 Jim Reeves babea_official babeu_a4a babeu_jose babeu_undies http://queerlandia.com/2012/02/15/the-wedding-dance/ http://queerlandia.com/2012/02/15/the-wedding-dance/#comments Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:55:14 +0000 Jim Reeves http://queerlandia.com/?p=9209 ]]> Sniffle alert.

“We support the full inclusion of all families in the life of our nation, with equal respect, responsibilities, and protections under the law, including the freedom to marry. Government has no business putting barriers in the path of people seeking to care for their family members, particularly in challenging economic times. We support the Respect for Marriage Act and the overturning of the federal so-called Defense of Marriage Act, and oppose discriminatory constitutional amendments and other attempts to deny the freedom to marry to loving and committed same-sex couples.”

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill tells Metro Weekly, “Leader Pelosi supports this language.”

Poliglot’s full report, here.

Washington State has passed marriage equality, becoming the 7 state to do so.  New Jersey will pass it, too, but Governor Christie has promised to veto.  California’s Proposition 8 has been ruled unconstitutional, twice, and may soon be history, or before the US Supreme Court. The President is “evolving”, and now the leader of the Democrats in the House supports a party platform plank regarding marriage equality.  2012 may be a year for even greater advances than those we’ve seen so far.  Keep your fingers crossed!

This action was held at the Tulare County Superior Court, in Visalia, California.

Eight couples attempted to get marriage licenses, but were turned away.

The County Clerk came out afterwards, to thank the participants for behaving respectfully in the office.  He was thanked by the participants for both the courtesy and professionalism of his staff, and for his coming out afterwards to chat.

Nationally known Get Equal / Marriage Equality activist Robin McGehee was there, too.

Candi, right, and Kristin, center, tried to get a license, and were turned down.

The local newspaper, the Visalia Times Delta, estimated the crowd at almost 50.  We counted at least 35.  The paper had a report online before most of the participants had a chance to FaceBook or Twitter the news!

Here’s some video of speakers at today’s rally.

Sorry for the poor audio, but if you listen close, you can hear it all.

]]> http://queerlandia.com/2012/02/14/marriage-rally-visalia-california-on-valentines-day/feed/ 1 Jim Reeves marriage_rally_visalia_2012 robin_mcgehee_get_equal candi_kristin_marriage_equality_021412 freedom_2_marry_021412_visalia http://queerlandia.com/2012/02/13/harvard-students/ http://queerlandia.com/2012/02/13/harvard-students/#comments Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:43:33 +0000 Jim Reeves http://queerlandia.com/?p=9030 ]]> Some of the best and brightest attend Harvard, so listen to them when they tell you – -

“It Gets Better!”

I found this in my email today, and at first glance, it looks authentic.  It’s not.  For one, AT&T doesn’t send out mass mailings from a gmail.com address!

Dear Sbcglobal Subscriber,
=====================

Virus Notification

A DGTFX Virus has been detected in your sbcglobal.net folders. Your email account has to be upgraded to our new Secured DGTFX anti-virus 2012
version to prevent damages to our web mail log and to your important files. Click your reply tab, Fill the columns below and send back to us or
your email account will be terminated to avoid spread of the virus.

Email:
User name:
Password:
Reconfirm Password:

Note that your password will be encrypted with 1024-bit RSA keys for your password safety.
All sbcglobal.net User Should Reply Now !!!
Failure to do this will immediately render your Web-email address deactivated from our database.
Thank you for your co-operation.

Warning Code :ID67565434
Sbcglobal Account Support.
Copyright ©2012

Don’t click on any links, or reply to this email. Just trash it.

Photo: Wenatchee World

Another gay teen has taken his own life after enduring years of bullying.  Rafael Morelos, 14, hanged himself January 29, 2012, in Cashmere, Washington.

His middle school principle, Rob Cline, told the Wenatchee World that there was no ongoing investigation about bullying at the school.  He said that Rafael had, earlier in the school year, reported one incidence of being bullied but “we took care of that. We investigated and took appropriate action.”

The Wenatchee World also reports that the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office is the investigating agency, and determined that it was a suicide and there was no foul play involved.

“You’re the first one who ever indicated to me that he had been bullied,” said Sheriff Brian Burnett in a phone interview Saturday.

Lt. Maria Agnew said earlier this week that bullying “did not come up in the investigation and there is no evidence that would support that right now.”

She said the investigation is closed. Burnett said it would only be opened if the school or family presented evidence of bullying.

Friends and other students of Morelos report extensive bullying, however.  Someone even put up a fake Facebook page to harass the gay teen.  Taunts that his younger brothers would be gay, also, haunted Rafael, according to friends.

A candle light vigil was held Friday, February 3, in Cashmere.  Rafael’s mother, Melinda Morelos, spoke to the crowd of over 100 mourners.

The Wenatchee World has the complete story.

I don’t know how many more of these stories I can take.  It is heartening, in a tragic way, that many of the families are willing to share their stories and their grief with others.  There are still many, however, who will try to hide in shame both the news of their relative’s homosexuality, and that they died from anti-gay hatred.  The recent suicide of EricJames Borges here in our community is a prime example.  The family didn’t even post an obituary, and did not attend either public memorial for the very talented young man.

Our condolences and respect to the family of Rafael, for being willing to go public with Rafael’s story.  By doing this, they help fight homophobia, and LGBTQ suicide.

If you need help dealing with depression and bullying, please call the Trevor Project’s 24 hour LGBT suicide hotline, at 866-488-7386 (toll free) or visit the Trevor Project web site for more information.  Help is available, all you have to do is call.

LGBTQ Life On Line in the Central Valley

Our February program is one that connects us all via blogging with our favorite bloggers.

Jim Reeves – Queerlandia/QueerVisalia

Brooke Burke – GayVisalia/GayPorterville

Justin Kamimoto, Ted Freitas – MyLGBTPlus

Andrew Miller – PFLAG Tulare and Kings Counties fb page

Lots of information, lots of connections, and lots of support! We look forward to seeing everyone.