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.