Outed SoCal lawmaker 'sorry' for voting against gay rights

Outed SoCal lawmaker 'sorry' for voting against gay rights

 

A closeted gay Republican state senator who outed himself after a drunk driving arrest apologized for voting against gay rights bills.
"I'm sorry for that," said Roy Ashburn, of Bakersfield, in an interview with the Bakersfield Californian.
Ashburn's secret was exposed in March when he was arrested for drunken driving in Sacramento after leaving a gay nightclub. Days later, he admitted to Kern AM 1180 host Inga Barks, "I am gay." (You can listen to the interview here).
His sexual orientation sparked a debate over his voting record. Ashburn has voted consistently against gay rights bills and was decried as a hypocrite by some. His defenders, however, said his homosexuality wasn't relevant to his political work -- a stance that Ashburn echoed in his "coming out" interview. He told Barks that he was serving the people who elected him:

"Again I believe firmly that my responsibility is to my constituents, and so on each measure that may come before me, I will take a careful look at it and apply that standard: 'How would my constituents vote on this?' 'How would they have me vote on this?' Obviously each of us has differences of opinion on almost every issue but ... when I say that I understand my constituents on these questions I don't think anyone misunderstands what I mean."

Now it appears Ashburn has changed his tune. In a Senate floor speech Thursday, Ashburn voiced his support for a resolution that asks Congress to reverse its "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy on gays:

"The answer is that being gay or straight has nothing to do with ability, devotion, courage, honor, skill and loyalty, the characteristics that I think we would all agree are desirable and necessary for those who serve in our national military, the current policy of 'don't ask, don't tell' is clearly out of date and discriminatory."

He also explained to NBC how fear played a role in the way he cast his votes.

"My practice in my entire political career when it came to gay issues was to prevent any kind of spotlight from being shined my way, because I was in hiding. So casting any kind of vote might, could in some way, lead to my secret being revealed. That was terrifying to me. It was paralyzing. So I cast some votes that have denied gay people of their basic, equal treatment under the law, and I'm not proud of it. I'm not going to do that again."

The resolution passed the Senate. So did SB906. Sponsored by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, the bill says a clergy member isn't required to perform a civil marriage that clashes with his or her faith. Ashburn voted against it, saying he was concerned that in light of the same-sex marriage ban, Proposition 8, the word "civil" used to describe marriage in Leno's bill would cause confusion and lawsuits.
Politics aside, Ashburn's personal life has apparently changed, too. He has stopped drinking, he bikes to work and he has lost 14 pounds:

"I'm seeing things I never noticed before and I'm smelling the roses, really, that's what I do."

Read Ashburn's candid talk with the Bakersfield Californian.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/scavenger/detail?entry_id=64582&tsp=1#ixzz0pGbmVjJv