Fierce Anti-Gay Rights California Lawmaker Admits: 'I'm Gay'

[bobbyw24]

Roy Ashburn, California State Senator, Says He's Gay After DUI Arrest

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Republican state Sen. Roy Ashburn said Monday he is gay, ending days of speculation that began after his arrest last week for investigation of driving under the influence.

Ashburn, who consistently voted against gay rights measures during his 14 years in the state Legislature, came out in an interview with KERN radio in Bakersfield, the area he represents.

Ashburn said he felt compelled to address rumors that he had visited a gay nightclub near the Capitol before his DUI arrest.

"I am gay ... those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long," Ashburn told conservative talk show host Inga Barks.

The 55-year-old father of four said he had tried to keep his personal life separate from his professional life until his March 3 arrest.

"When I crossed the line and broke the law and put people at risk, that's different, and I do owe people an explanation," he said.

Ashburn was arrested after he was spotted driving erratically near the Capitol, according to the California Highway Patrol. Shelly Orio, a spokeswoman from the Sacramento County district attorney's office, said a breath test showed the senator's blood-alcohol level was .14 percent, or .06 points above the legal limit.

The next day, reports surfaced that Ashburn had left Faces, a gay nightclub, with an unidentified man in the passenger seat of his Senate-owned vehicle.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/08/roy-ashburn-california-st_n_490605.html

[TonySutton]

Another classic example of denial. I bet he feels the weight of the world off his shoulders now.

[bobbyw24]

While it is unclear just how much Ashburn’s sexual orientation – apparently something of an open secret in Sacramento – played in his decision to leave politics, it raises new questions about gay Republicans’ place within the conservative movement.

While openly gay Republicans still face many hurdles, there has been significant change in how many conservatives view sexual orientation, says Charles Moran, spokesman for the Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative group that advocates gay rights.

“Absolutely, the Republicans still have issues they are trying to overcome in terms of of sexual orientation,” Mr. Moran says. “We are kicking down the doors and really forcing the Republican Party to deal with the fact there are gay conservatives.”

Of course, there are openly gay elected officials across the United States, but few of them are Republicans. Indeed, there are no openly gay Republicans in Congress.

According to Moran, conservatives such as former Vice President Dick Cheney and Meghan McCain, who both support gay marriage, are changing many conservatives’ negative views about homosexuality.

It's possible that Massachusetts could soon have the highest-ranking elected official who is gay. In the state's upcoming governor's race, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor – Massachusetts Senate minority leader Richard Tisei – is openly gay.

In the view of others, however, conservatives are a long way from accepting any openly gay ideological compatriots.

“While conservatives have embraced the equal rights and equal dignity of Jews, African-Americans, and women, they have not yet reached that point with gay people,” said David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, at a recent forum in Washington on gay and conservative politics.

Now that Ashburn has said he is gay, this question has emerged: Will he change course on many gay-rights issues, which he previously voted against?

Ashburn represents the largely conservative Bakersfield, Calif., area, and he has a long record of voting against gay-rights measures. He told talk-show host Inga Barks on Monday that his votes were an effort to represent the views of his constituents.

“My votes reflect the wishes of the people in my district,” he said. “So as each of these individual measures came before the Legislature, I cast ‘no’ votes ... because the measures were almost always about acknowledging rights or assigning identification to homosexual persons.”

Ms. Barks asked whether he agreed with those votes on gay rights issues, but he didn’t answer the question. “I voted as I felt I should on behalf of the people who elected me,” he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100309/ts_csm/285946

[angelatc]

Another classic example of denial. I bet he feels the weight of the world off his shoulders now.

I'm thinking he has a whole new set of problems now.