On Thursday night, Bristol Palin headed to the Saddle Ranch in West Hollywood, California. She wanted to get some footage for her upcoming reality show, but all she ended up with were allegations of homophobia. Now her representative is lashing out against those charges of intolerance and pointing the finger at the man Bristol was arguing with.

It all started, of all places, on a mechanical bull. Palin tried her hardest to ride the contraption, but she was thrown right around the same time a stranger heckled, “Did you ride Levi like that? Your mother's a whore”. The twenty year old single mother followed the voice and ended up face to face with forty-seven year old Stephen Hanks. A heated argument ensued in which Hanks called Mama Palin “the fucking devil”, and Bristol responded by asking if he hated her because he was a homosexual. The whole incident was caught on tape, leading some to accuse Bristol of being homophobic.

Here's what Palin's rep told TMZ…

"(Bristol) was approached in a confrontational and inappropriate manner when two men aggressively shouted expletives aimed at her in reference to her mother. Bristol responded to the unprovoked verbal assault by calmly standing her ground and defending her family."

Because of Sarah Palin's future political ambitions, Bristol's rep was clearly hampered by an inability to spell out the whole truth in the above statement. Since I have no stake in her (possible) future run at the White House, let me go ahead and spell it out for you. Sarah Palin has a long history of making inflammatory statements about the homosexual community. Clearly, Stephen Hanks is no fan of the former Vice Presidential candidate; so, her daughter was asking if the reason for his disgust was because he's a homosexual and has problems with the way her mother has handled gay issues in the past.

In retrospect, Bristol probably would have chosen different words to get across the gist of what she was trying to say, but I think it's a stretch to call her a homophobe based on her poorly phrasing a somewhat logical question. Besides, what seems to have been lost in all this is the ridiculousness of a forty-seven year old man heckling a twenty year old girl about her mother's behavior. I'm far from a Sarah Palin supporter, but my distaste for that woman in no way affects my views on her daughter. Sometimes it's better to just shut your mouth and not verbally air grievances, especially when they only involve a relative of the intended target.