Ron Paul's '90s Newsletters Spew Antigay Sentiment

Neal Broverman

Neal Broverman is the Editorial Director, Print of Pride Media, publishers of The Advocate, Out, Out Traveler, and Plus, spending more than 20 years in journalism. He indulges his interest in transportation and urban planning with regular contributions to Los Angeles magazine, and his work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He lives in the City of Angels with his husband, children, and their chiweenie.

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Neal Broverman

December 25 2011 5:40 PM EST

November 17 2015 5:28 AM EST

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The New Republic has uncovered newsletters from current presidential candidate Ron Paul that are loaded with antigay and racist rants.

The newsletters dealing with gay content came from the Ron Paul Political Report or the Ron Paul Survival Report and were released in the 1990s (the entirety of the newsletters date back to the '70s). Many of the homophobic diatribes blame gay men for AIDS. An issue of the Ron Paul Survival Report from 1994 states that "those who don't commit sodomy, who don't get blood a transfusion, and who don't swap needles, are virtually assured of not getting AIDS unless they are deliberately infected by a malicious gay."

A newsletter from 1990 waxed nostalgic for the days when gays were shamed into living in the closet.

Paul's newsletters often attacked African-Americans, as well; one issue claimed Martin Luther King, Jr. was a pedophile. It's not yet clear if Paul himself wrote the articles. Read more here.