[News] [CA, USA] After 'I'm Gay' Admission, Roy Ashburn Asked To Resign
Stephanie Stevens
After 'I'm Gay' Admission, Roy Ashburn Asked To Resign
By On Top Magazine Staff
Published: March 09, 2010
Conservatives are calling on Roy Ashburn to resign his seat in the
California Senate after admitting he's gay.
“Roy Ashburn should resign,” Randy Thomasson, president of the
Christian-based SaveCalifornia.com, said in a statement released
Tuesday. “His lying, cheating ways have boiled over and the public's
trust has been shattered.”
Ashburn's sexuality came under close scrutiny after the Republican
lawmaker was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving Wednesday morning
in Sacramento. A local television station reported that an
unidentified man was in the car with Ashburn, who had that night been
at Faces, a popular gay bar. Openly gay West Sacramento Mayor
Christopher Cabaldon said Ashburn was a regular at gay nightspots
throughout the city. After being freed on a $1,400 bond, Ashburn
issued an apology, then went into seclusion.
On Monday, Ashburn came clean, telling conservative talk show host
Inga Banks: “I am gay.”
“And so, those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so
long,” he added.
Following the arrest, many gay activists called the 55-year-old
politician a hypocrite for his staunch record of opposing gay rights,
which includes voting against gay marriage, rights for transgender
people and recognition of Harvey Milk Day, in memory of San
Francisco's first openly gay politician.
Thomasson called Ashburn “dramatically out of step with his
constituents” because he has “openly identified with the 'LGBT'
[Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender] lifestyle.”
“Demonstrating himself to be self-serving,” Thomasson added, “Ashburn
has proven himself untrustworthy as a public servant.”
Ashburn, who is a father of four, divorced his wife in 2003.
Nevertheless, Thomasson listed infidelity as another reason for
calling for his resignation: “He vowed to be faithful to his wife,
then broke his vows when he chose homosexuality over his marriage.”
And he called Ashburn “mistaken” about being gay: “No one is truly
'gay' because the so-called 'gay gene' does not exist. What's more,
there are thousands of Americans who formerly engaged in homosexual
behavior who have gotten help and have left their unnatural lifestyle
behind.”
Thomasson was making a reference to reparative therapy, a
controversial treatment that promises to turn gay people straight.
Ashburn also defended his anti-gay record in the Senate, saying, “I
felt my duty, and I still feel this way, is to represent my
constituents,” during Monday's interview.
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