As reported in the LA Times and other outlets, California State Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield), divorced and father of four, is gay.
Care to make a guess about his record on gay issues? It's perfect - anti, every time.
Gay marriage? No (2005)
Designation of May 22 as Harvey Milk Day? No (three times)
Hosted - HOSTED - anti-gay marriage rallies? Yes (2005)
The beat goes on.
How do we know he's gay, and why is he coming out now? Because he got busted for a DUI after leaving a gay bar in Sacramento. On Latin night. With a young Latino man in the passenger seat.
Any guesses on Senator Ashburn's voting record on Latino Issues? Equally neaderthalic. From akawilliam.com (thanks, Landis):
... when he votes against immigrants as often and as viciously as he voted against gay people, when Ashburn votes against brown people, dehumanizes them (us, really) by voting to deny them access to education and voting to keep them from having government-recognized identities and even voting to prevent other Californians from learning about the contributions of immigrants to the state of California, Ashburn moves from a pathetic confusion and into a plantation mentality.
And what does he now ask? For prayers. From a man who is so Christian as to follow in Jesus' example and clothe the naked and comfort the afflicted... oh, wait. He didn't do that, so much. Maybe if the afflicted are white? It seems that if the naked are brown, he particularly doesn't want them clothed.
And, the infantile "god as switchboard operator" school of theology. Dude, seriously. If you believe god exists, and IF you believe that he is omnipotent and overseer of all creation - how small are you making him (or her, clearly, but i'd be willing to bet a kidney that this jackhole prays to a white male god) to worry about your interest in hooking up with another dude? And presumably, like most mos, you didn't wake up one day after a marriage with four kids and think "I wonder what gay sex is like? Think I'll try that..." No, you came this way, out of the womb, like mos do, as the way your creator made you. And due to an effed up theology based on spurious and highly selective extrapolation from a thousands-year-old verbal tradition from a band of nomads who believed in slavery, stoning your children and incest, you made yourself, literally, crazy about liking other guys. And that led you to second guess the creator.
AND that led you to foist your self-loathing and neuroses onto the state of California, and to me.
What the hell do you do with these people?!
The fixation on gays and immigrants as fundraising tools and vote-getters for some on the right in this country is despicable. Behind in an election? Blame the Mexis (Hello, Governor Wilson?). Need to get out the vote? Spread lies about queer folk. Need a grabby headline for a fundraising mailer? Pick one. And then go to a gay bar and try to pick one up.
Disgusting, and beneath contempt.
And you can heed his request to pray all you want to help Senator Ashburn... what, exactly? Not dig brown dudes? Not drive drunk? Not be a complete and utter d-bag? All of the above?
How does one go through life with such self-loathing? Does that increase the frisson of the hook-up, buying in (and reinforcing) the illicitness of the act?
Sen. Ashburn drove drunk in a tax-payer car. Shockingly poor judgment that put the health and lives of himself, his date and others in danger.
But if he weren't termed out, do you think the good voters of his district would be more willing to look past a.) the DUI or b.) the fact that he was driving away from a gay bar with a young Latino male companion?
My money is on a. Disgusting.
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1 comment:
“Family Values” California state senator representing Kern County, Republican Roy Ashburn (guess how he votes on gay issues?), goes to a gay bar near the Capital, picks up a scantily clad buddy, gets drunk, drives and receives a DUI. In my opinion the Republican Party has been taken over small portions of the republican party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” (people who love to push their beliefs on others while trying to take away rights of those they just hate) and that’s who they need to extract from their party if they real want to win. Good Luck, because as they said in WACO, “We Ain’t Coming Out”. They are good at “Follow the Leader”. They listen to their dullard leaders Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush and Savage and the rest of the Blowhards. The world is complicated and most republicans (Hamiliton, Lincoln, Roosevelt) believe that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now its about dancing around the claim that government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. Although most republicans are trying to distant themselves from this fringe they have a long way to go. I guess Ashburn is the first on the list “2010 Republican Summer of Love”. Remember last year list of “2009 Republican Summer of Love”: state assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), SC Board of Ed Chair, Kristin Maguire (AKA Bridget Keeney). Do I hear Tammy Wynette, “Stand By Your Man” playing in the background? I remember not so long ago that other Orange County song favorite, “Stand By Your Tan” (for Tan Nguyen). But that’s another Orange County fool.
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