Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas is facing two challengers in the Republican primary in August, one of whom has now come under attack by anti-gay activists in the state for having appeared in a "homosexual movie" filmed several years ago that was written and directed by a friend of his.
Alan LaPolice, who is challenging Huelskamp for the seat representing Kansas' First District, had a small role in a movie entitled "The Art of Being Straight" for which he is now being criticized by Religious Right activists:
Congressional candidate Alan LaPolice’s appearance in the movie “The Art of Being Straight,” has become an issue in his primary race against U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler/Hutchinson.
“I am very concerned that a candidate for national office would be so out of touch with the deeply held beliefs of a great many Kansans,” said Dennis Blick, chairman of the board for Kansas Family Policy Council, Wichita.
“KFPC believes Kansans deserve candidates of the highest integrity committed to traditional Judeo-Christian values, which have been the bedrock of rural Kansas communities for generations,” Blick said in a press release Tuesday from the KFPC.
Phillip Cosby, director of the American Family Association of Kansas and Missouri, said in the release that it’s “highly inappropriate” to be “featured in a homosexual movie.”
LaPolice was an actor but principally an educator in California before moving back to Clyde last year. He told The News recently he said yes to a friend and appeared in the friend’s movie that was shot around 2006. LaPolice played a character he described as a homophobic bigot.
For this part, LaPolice insists that he is a practicing Catholic who is "happily married with three beautiful daughters" who only appeared in the film as a favor to a friend. LaPolice says his scene lasted less than a minute and asserts that "anyone attempting to undermine my candidacy by fixating on a very small movie role from nearly 10 years ago would be guilty of small-minded bigotry."
LaPolice can be seen briefly around the :25 mark of this trailer for the film:
