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Roy Ashburn: "I am gay"

BY CHRISTINE BEDELL and GRETCHEN WENNER, Californian government editor, Californian staff writer gwenner@bakersfield.com,
cbedell@bakersfield.com | Monday, Mar 08 2010 12:05 PM

Last Updated Monday, Mar 08 2010 06:56 PM

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Roy Ashburn

State Sen. Roy Ashburn

State Sen. Roy Ashburn acknowledged Monday what’s been rumored for years — that he is gay — but didn’t reveal much more than that in his first public comments since being arrested on drunken driving charges last Wednesday.

“I am gay. Those are the words that have been difficult for me for so long,” a sometimes emotional Ashburn told local talk radio show host Inga Barks of KERN AM 1180.

But in an interview with The Californian afterward, the conservative Republican wouldn’t say much more than that about his personal life.

When did he know he was gay? When did he come out to his family? Will his lifestyle change now that he’s out of the closet?

Ashburn refused to go any of those places.

“That’s my private life and that’s personal,” Ashburn said. “I don’t think it’s relevant to how I do my job.”

The veteran Kern County lawmaker was similarly tight-lipped about what led to his being charged with misdemeanor driving-under-the-influence-of-alcohol charges by the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office.

He wouldn’t say where he’d been, who was with him or how much he’d had to drink before being picked up by the California Highway Patrol.

A Sacramento television station quoted unnamed sources last week as saying Ashburn had been at a gay night club. The CHP reported another man was in the state-owned, black Chevrolet Tahoe Ashburn was driving, but did not identify him.

Sacramento prosecutors said Ashburn had a blood alcohol level of .14 percent. The legal limit is .08 percent.

“I had too much to drink and I drove after having had too much alcohol,” Ashburn said. “I’ve been arrested and I expect to pay the consequences for my actions and be treated as anyone would under similar circumstances. I’m sorry for drinking and driving.

“My personal life is my personal life,” Ashburn said. “I’ve already said that I’m gay. The facts are what they are. I acknowledge what I did and I’ll pay the consequences for that.

“But what happened last week — my private life became public and so now I acknowledge that I am gay. I think that’s what people want to know.”

Ashburn has taken heat in the last week for having been both closeted and a consistent voter against gay-rights related legislation. In the interview, Ashburn repeatedly argued he voted the will of his constituents in his conservative 18th Senate District, which includes much of Bakersfield.

“I took a position based on what I believed was the will of my constituents, not mine, necessarily,” Ashburn said. “We have a representative form of government ... where citizens select people to cast votes on their behalf.”

Did he cast any votes he personally disagreed with? Ashburn couldn’t cite any. Were any of those votes difficult to make? Ashburn said he takes all votes seriously.

Do politicians have an obligation to be frank with voters about who they are? Ashburn kept returning to his right to have a personal life separate from his public one.

Numerous bloggers have asked whether Ashburn could have been blackmailed into providing a key vote in February 2009 for a controversial state budget deal that included tax increases.

Ashburn said that was the most difficult vote of his legislative career and he felt all sorts of pressure — but nobody threatened to “out” him if he voted one way or the other.

He also said his orientation was a reason he did not seek the 20th Congressional District GOP primary this year — one of many. Asked if someone had threatened to reveal his homosexuality if he ran, Ashburn said he never felt personally threatened in that regard.

OUTSIDE VIEWS

Silence continued to be the reaction from Kern County’s Republican leaders. Assemblywoman Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield, who is running to replace Ashburn, declined to comment. So did Ken Mettler, a 32nd District Assembly candidate and Kern High School District trustee.

Kern County Republican Party Chairman Zack Scrivner declined to comment last week and didn’t return a call seeking comment Monday.

Also failing to return calls last week and Monday was Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield.

Local Republican consultant and Ashburn friend Stan Harper said Ashburn did the right thing.

“I think it was very sincere, very genuine,” Harper said. “It was difficult for him to make that statement. I certainly feel it’s something he had to do.”

Harper said Ashburn’s homosexuality has been rumored for years but the two had never discussed Ashburn’s orientation. Ashburn shouldn’t have been expected to come out sooner, Harper said: “I think he had to do it on his timing, when he was going to be comfortable.”

“A person’s sexual orientation is personal,” Harper said. “It does not have anything to do with him being a legislator. What difference does it make one way or the other, is my opinion.”

Since Ashburn has decided not to immediately run for another public office after he’s termed out this year, the announcement’s effect on Ashburn’s elected career is a moot point, Harper said.

Tracy Leach, another local Republican consultant, reluctantly addressed the topic.

If a voter asked Ashburn directly about his sexuality, “he should be truthful as a representative,” she said.

But if Ashburn had come out earlier, would local constituents have voted for him?

“No,” she said.

Leach said she finds it “crass” when a politician’s sex life is discussed publicly.

“I guess we used to have better manners, and I liked it,” she said.

“I know it’s dorky and square,” Leach added, “but his drunk driving arrest is more relevant” to his job as a state lawmaker and to the public’s well-being than is his sexual orientation.

At least one local gay rights advocate thinks Ashburn’s constituents had a right to know his sexual orientation before Monday’s announcement.

“My inclination is to say yes,” said Whitney Weddell, chair of Bakersfield LGBTQ — short for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and questioning.

A majority of his constituents probably oppose gay marriage, she said, but Ashburn’s no votes spread far beyond that issue.

Weddell wonders whether the closeted Ashburn “created for himself a knee-jerk reaction” that spurred him to vote against any legislation that simply mentioned gays in a positive way.

“If he was more out,” she said, perhaps “he would have looked at those bills with a more critical and fair eye.”

Randy Thomasson, founder and president of conservative SaveCalifornia.com in Sacramento, wanted Ashburn to resign.

“His lying, cheating ways have boiled over and the public’s trust has been shattered,” Thomasson wrote in a news release sent Monday evening.

Thomasson bullet-pointed a list of his grievances, saying Ashburn swore to uphold the law but broke it and endangered others by driving drunk, signed a taxpayer protection pledge then voted for a major tax hike and lied to people who had asked about his sexuality.

“Now that he has openly identified with the ‘LGBT’ lifestyle, Ashburn is dramatically out of step with his constituents, has lost their trust, and is in danger of voting against their conservative family values,” Thomasson wrote.

REPUBLICAN AND GAY?

The discussion of Ashburn’s private and public lives begged the question: Can you be a conservative Republican and gay?

Absolutely, said 31-year-old Michael Galloway of Bakersfield, who says he fits both descriptions. Issues other than gay rights are just more important to him.  

“My biggest political principles are limited government, individual liberty and the free market system,” said Galloway, who grew up in Wasco, left the area for college and returned to Bakersfield four years ago. “Those principles line up more with the Republican Party than the Democratic Party. That’s why I’m a Republican.”

Galloway said Ashburn only had a responsibility to be who he was with his family, especially his four daughters.

“As long as he is doing his job, voting the way his district wants him to vote, I think he’s fulfilling his responsibilities.”

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