"I'm Gay"
No. Not that he's gay. That's not the tragedy.
The tragedy is that California State Representative Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) believed it was necessary to demonize gays--to demonize who he is--in order to gain approval from his conservative constituency. Ashburn had to adopt an anti-gay persona--betray who he was-- in order to garner votes from his conservative supporters.
When will this madness stop? California was persuaded in 2008, with the help of millions of dollars from the Mormon and Catholic Organizations, to overturn the State legislature's ruling allowing gays to enjoy the same civil rights as the rest of the state's citizens, as the rest of American citizens.
How do you suppose Ashburn voted? This is another heartbreaking story of how our culture destroys the individual who does not conform to an organized religion's idea of what is moral.
As the TPM report says, it is heartening that Ashburn came out of the closet and was honest in admitting who he is. We have to leave this barbaric prejudice behind us and move forward to grant civil rights to our gay citizens.
And this will happen.
It is happening.
From Talking Points Memo:
The history of gay politicians fighting as tribunes of homophobia and prejudice is so long and twisted and sad and awful that I don't really think I'm in any position to judge. But I'll give credit to state Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield), the anti-gay rights Republican who got picked up last week on a DUI after leaving a gay nightspot in Sacramento, for not pulling a Craig or a Haggard.
"I'm gay," he told a radio interviewer this morning. "Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long."
He explained his past voting record saying that's what his conservative constituents wanted.
9 comments:
Yeah. Some rightie pols have a problem when it comes to admitting that they're gay. They'd rather lie and be caught and humiliated than being honest.
Shaw,
I'm not trying to be funny or ironic when I say this, but Ashburn was a man about it. I'd also assumed he was gonna pull some kind of Christian conversion thing or have his wife by his side while he said he was gonna seek medical help.
Good for him.
I agree with you, Oso,
He did the right thing after being arrested.
Too bad he didn't do it sooner. Too bad this country makes it miserable for gay people to be who they are.
It's changing. Thankfully. It is changing, and we will leave this inhumanity behind us and someday wonder how we could have been so heartless to our gay brothers and sisters.
I can only imagine how tortured this fellow has been while leading this double life. I'm sure he won't be re-elected but at least he will be free to be himself.
It is changing but oh so slowly and these righties are determined to see everyone who isn't like them burn at the stake.
Too bad it took this for Ashburn to admit who he is. Most of the time I laugh at the hypocrites like Haggard but I hope this guy finds peace.
I truly don't know if to feel more angry at his votes and actions against gay people, than to feel happy for his revelation...my anger and disgust for him is hard to dismiss...
I imagine he's spent more than a few nights tossing his cookies from the stress. It wasn't too long ago that gay men committed suicide because they couldn't deal with being gay. Many others turned to alcholism - a slow form of suicide.
"He explained his past voting record saying that's what his conservative constituents wanted."
I read this and wondered how many politicians there are who do what their constituents want.
As long as there are children raised to hate because of religion, there will be some fraction of them who eventually discover that they are the very thing they were raised to hate, with all the warping of the mind and behavior which almost inevitably follows from that. Remember, they've been trained to believe not just "this is bad" but "God hates this".
I think we'll see less and less of that over time -- the younger generation is growing up in a world where, at least, society at large does far less to reinforce the prejudice.
And, yes, Ashburn deserves credit for doing the right thing after he got caught, even if all the harm he did before needs to be remembered too.
Shaw,
I started blogging again...
http://liberalideology.blogspot.com/
Its time we started discussing what liberalism is all about rather than allowing conservatives to define us!
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