KOVR-TV, a local news station in Sacramento, is reporting today that a another anti-gay Republican has been caught red-handed, so to speak, in a compromising situation that calls his own sexual orientation into question.
Sen. Roy Ashburn, who represents parts of Kern, Tulare and San Bernadino counties in Southern California, was arrested early Wednesday morning, March 3, for driving drunk in Sacramento after officers with the California Highway Patrol saw his black Chevy Tahoe swerving down the street. Ashburn was driving.
Police reports indicated Ashburn had just left a gay bar called Faces. KOVR-TV said Ashburn immediately identified himself to the officers as a state senator. The station also said Ashburn had another man in the car with him, but that this man “was not identified as a lawmaker.” He was not detained.
Ashburn, a married father of four, released a statement on Wednesday afternoon in which he apologized and acknowledged that there was “no excuse for my poor judgment.”
He said: “I accept complete responsibility for my conduct and am prepared to accept the consequences for what I did. I am also truly sorry for the impact this incident will have those who support and trust me — my family, my constituents, my friends and my colleages in the Senate.”
31 Comments
I don’t think Roy Ashburn was looking for a cookie.
I think he was looking for a penis.
Love it!
Nothing to see here, just another Republican HYPOCRITE. Move along, folks.
And he was illegally driving a state vehicle.
Advice to Republican politicians: Republican + politician + wife + kids + anti-gay = gay. If you want to stay in the closet and stay in office, keep your homophobic trap shut.
Still, have to have a little compassion for the guy despite his hypocrisy. That’s a pretty serious internal conflict when your ideology doesn’t align with your own identity. If he is gay or bi then his public persona (and voting record) clearly seem to be a reaction to his own struggles. Not to mention an apparent issue with drinking.
Again, can’t defend his hypocrisy but also can’t wish ill on a person who so clearly has at least a couple major personal issues to work on. He’s still a human and deserves a chance at rehabilitation on all fronts. (but it is still fun to watch the GOP’ers squirm when this kind of stuff happens)
Damn, Rich, you’re such a nice person.
My tendency is to have no compassion whatsoever for someone who built his career on taking away my rights and hurting me and my family. My instinct is to kick him when he’s down, use him as an example, hang his hypocrisy out for everyone to see, renew calls for him to be thrown out of office (there were two recall attempts against him last year) and laugh at his dopey, innocent wife as she stands behind him silently supporting him at the inevitable press conference later this week.
OK, Rich. I won’t do those things. Your way, displaying some compassion, we show that we’re better than they are.
Priceless!
I just wish a right wing anti-gay Republican closet case would have been at the Rainbow Lounge Raid in Fort Worth.
David & Rich are talking about a question that’s central to the gay rights movement in much the way it was in the civil rights movements of the ’60’s: the role of violence, the role of compassion. While I don’t think news coverage of an individual could be classified as violence, no matter how much chaos it triggers in his/her life, I do think the language of “kick him while he’s down” puts one in mind of physical violence – and was no doubt deliberately chosen for that very effect. At what point to lacking compassion become embracing violence? Does violence always create more violence? I suspsect yes.
I’m with Taffet.
He chose to go into politics as a repub so that he could inflict his hatred on us.
He knows he wants a bigdickinthemouth, but he’s too much a pussy to admit it, so he punishes those who are man enough to do what he’s too afraid to do.
Each and every closet case that makes a career out of trying to punish us for being who we are deserves every humiliation and misery that comes his way.
He should be ordered to attend GAY-HAB! The name of the new “gayhabilitation” will be called
INCLUDE-US as opposed to EXODUS. Maybe this would help him deal with his homophobic struggles.
I don’t mean to be overly soft on the guy. The personal issues he is facing are not new to this world but that’s level at which I would offer compassion. The fact that he has allowed those issues to impact the legal rights of others is still a problem and he does need to publicly reconcile his professional decision to rabidly support discrimination and his formerly private decision to be a hypocrite. So the hypocrisy of the situation should be put on display, the absurdity of the ‘legal discrimination’ should continue to be pointed out, and the basically right-wing institutionalized homophobia openly mocked. I would only say to argue against this issue and not the individual. Any buddies he had in the GOP have already deleted his email address and cell phone number and they’d be the first to line up to kick the guy.. so you wouldn’t change a single opinion by roasting this guy (figuratively speaking). But you can show that their position is patently based on fear, ignorance and a complete misunderstanding or disrespect for what equal rights actually are.
Oh.. and obviously he should leave public office.
:).. sorry. I meant rehab for the drinking issue, not the ‘gay issue’ I don’t personally care that he seems to be a closet case driving around late night with a new friend, but I do care that he’s doing it completely sloshed. @ Montemalone- humiliation.. yes to an extent. Misery… he’s probably got a bit of that already. But that does absolutely nothing to support equal rights. I think I understand your anger, but being vindictive probably plays more into the hands of your foes and only gives you fleeting satisfaction in knowing that there are in fact idiots and assholes in the world (but we already knew that).
Obviously you meant rehab for his drinking. Rehab for being gay would be like rehab for getting dressed. You could take a class in how to dress better but getting dressed is not something you could or should suddenly stop. He might consider a class in being gay so he can do it better, but I doubt it’s something he’ll suddenly stop.
Rich, repubs don’t understand compassion.
If he was just some country-club closet case that stopped off at The Stud for a little some-some before heading home to the wife and kids, then maaaybe I’d think he doesn’t deserve to have his ass raked over the coals across America. But he CHOSE to be a politician and he CHOSE to be a hypocrite.
These guys need to learn their lessons the hard way. His fucked up mind is not my problem or concern. He made a choice.
This is not being vindictive. This is playing the game by the rules they play by. Deep down, you know that.
OK, so Montemalone and I have a tendency to be … let’s say it … vicious queens who love it when an extremist who’s been working to destroy our lives gets caught with his pants down. The problem with someone like Rich is he’s … how can I put this … nice. Sorry Rich, but you are. You’re really decent. You respect other people. You’re better than that piece of crap California senator. You understand his problems and wish him well. Out of office, but well. You feel sorry for this guy’s family even though he’s been working to destroy our families. He could use a friend like you right now. He doesn’t deserve a friend like you, but he could use one.
Okay so clearly I’ve misrepresented myself. I’m not nearly as nice as I apparently come off. For example, Dick Cheney is perhaps the most vile person outside of say a Hitler-type that I can imagine (in modern times). I have absolutely no compassion for either and given the opportunity I’d probably go with a clean throat punch on both. I just don’t think we should make every vile behavior equal Dick Cheney. Perhaps this guy is another DC., I don’t know. But my basic point is that we don’t project that on him immediately.
Then again, I’m a white, hetero male and while I’ve would not say that I’ve ever been given any particular breaks, I’m not immediately castigated by virtue of existence. So perhaps I know little of what I say. But, I’m comfortable with my understanding of the concept of equal rights. And it’s based upon reason, not dogma. There is no valid reason (logic) behind discrimination. The DC’s of the world deserve what they dish out (beyond literal beatings I mean), but not every Cheneyesk behavior comes from the same vile place. Sometimes it just comes from utter, and extremely unfortunate confusion.
Shouldn’t this really be reported on the Huffington Post? I am so enjoying the hyprocrites falling like apples from the tree..
Rich is a white, hetero male?
I’m confused.
I know. A nice, white, hetero male who’s secure enough in his own sexuality that he can participate in and add to a discussion on an LGBT newspaper Web site intelligently, while showing compassion and respect. Restores your faith that people can get along. Makes me feel compassion for the families of Catholic Charities employees in Washington, D.C., who are losing their health insurance because the church is afraid they might have to cover a same-sex partner. And as he admitted, he’s not so nice.
What amazes me is that Houston, the 4th largest city in the country and red-neck capital elected a lesbian to run things. An out, proud, partnered, sensible shoe wearing lesbian.
When are the closet cases and self-haters and hypocrites gonna wake up to the fact that the people that count don’t care? It’s the vocal minority and church that are the problem.
Too bad about the employees of CC, but don’t get me started on the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church.
Please, please. Get started on their hypocrisy.
To be honest I had no idea I was specifically on a LGBT site. I clicked through from CNN.com or some other mass media link to this story and this is where I ended up, read the story and didn’t bother to look too closely at the banner on the top of this page (until now that is). But I don’t think that excludes me from commenting on rights issues. Nonetheless, I can see you two just want to vent a bit so I’ll not stand in your way. If targeting me makes you happy then have at it. You’re right, everyone else is wrong and nobody understands things like you do. Sorry I invaded your space.
Rich, you were NOT invading. You are a welcome addition and a good writer. Please keep coming back to comment. I was not being sarcastic when I called you nice. It’s really a refreshing position to have here. (Ask Tammye. She’s always cooling me off before I post).
Rich: Please don’t leave! Everyone is welcome here. I think David and Montemalone were just surprised that a hetero man came to this site and left comments that were reasonable. Most of the straight people who end up here commenting on posts spew a lot of hateful anti-gay stuff.
They were just caught off guard that such reasonable, non-hateful comments came from a straight man. (Not implying that all straight men, or even most straight men, are hateful and anti-gay; it’s just that a lot of the straights who come to this site and leave comments seem to be that way.)
What Tammye said.
And I’m glad to know that this site is linked to by major news organizations. If more people did participate in our discussions, and thereby learned more about our concerns and how we find ourselves in this world. then maybe things would change for the better.
Rich, tell your friends. Let them get a view of the world from our perspective. Education and enlightenment works.
@TN. Unfortunately I’m sure that’s true. And even had I realized what the DallasVoice was I still would have made my comments, I just would have begun by saying that I was neither LGBorT so that anyone reading could decide for themselves if I’m worth listening to or at least know where I was (or wasn’t) coming from.
Anyway, thanks again and no worries I didn’t take your comments the wrong way. I’m quite sure there is plenty of hate thrown at this site and its readers so that’s perfectly understandable.
I’ll stick around as folks follow up on this thread. Sorry that I jumped the gun M and DT.
Speaking of the Catholic Church…
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/05/vatican-hit-by-gay-sex-sc_n_486218.html
Thanks guys, I will. Sorry I was so quick to get defensive. Oh, and it was CNN.com that got me here. There were several links below the headline including this one. I clicked on DallasVoice because I’ve lived there from time to time and wanted to see what the Texas spin on this would be. I got more than I expected, but I’m happy I did.
I’m curious to see what the senator’s public mea culpa is going to be like. Hopefully better than that of Senator Larry ‘Wide Stance’ Craig.
Truth be told, this poor sucker, while being a hypocrite and totally confused about his sexuality was probably raised in a household that was just as conservative and just as oppressive to his own feelings. Becoming a anti-gay repub is his way of coping and hiding the fact that he’s gayer than gay to himself. The easy thing to do is call him out as a hypocrite, and while he clearly is labeling him isn’t going to change policy. The ones I truly feel sorry for is the wife (as dumb as she might be) and the children. Hopefully, an incident like this will open their eyes. Rather than accept himself as a gay or bi man, he’ll probably just try rationalizing his actions by claiming the devil was influencing him or had him in his control, and that he’s just a sinner like everyone else.