by Raven West

Created on: August 07, 2009   Last Updated: August 13, 2009

It is almost ironic that of all the Republicans who ran in the 2008 presidential primary, Ron Paul would be the one tagged to appear in an outrageous motion picture whose leading character is gay. Bruno, the newest movie from Sacha Baron Cohen of Borat fame, features a 5 minute scene where Bruno, an openly gay character, tries, unsuccessfully to seduce the Congressman.

Away from the pre-arranged media interviews, unrehearsed and unscripted, Ron Paul shows his true colors. He could have taken the opportunity to simply walk out of the room, or laugh at the joke, or even make a humorous comment like "nothing you can do will change my mind about gays in the military", but instead we see the true response by the real man confronted by a gay man. His reaction was of anger and disgust as he's shown fleeing from the scene, exclaiming "This is ended!"

Yes, it was embarrassing and obviously very uncomfortable for Ron. There is laughter in the background, but I didn't find it at all funny in the context. Then again, I was never a big fan of "punked" type shows. However, showing Ron Paul run screaming from the room shouting "That guy is a queer", says more about the man than the polished politician.

Now many who have seen this clip have thought that Paul's reaction to an assault was appropriate. That he feared for his safety, didn't understand the prank, that his response, as a over 70's male was quite correct. Perhaps. However in a much more rehearsed radio interview, Paul is heard chuckling when he says that he would "probably have to apologize to my supporters because I think most are going to (wonder) why in the world didn't I sock this guy in the nose."

Yes, we're all certain that your supporters would agree that violence against a gay man, or in this case, a straight man playing the part of a gay man, would have been a great response. In fact, some of them did totally agree with his statement. When push came to shove so to speak, there seems to be a great deal of homophobia in this tolerant society. For the record, I do not believe that Ron Paul is homophobic. But he's not a Libertarian either.

Ron Paul, first a Republican, then a Libertarian, then a Republican once again, whose message of fiscal responsibility resounded so loudly that it created a "revolution". Ron Paul, who then endorsed the Constitutional Party candidate, joined forces with the John Birch Society and abandoned a large segment of libertarians when it came to issues of basic human rights.

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