Senator's Double Life Misleads Voters

State Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield), known for having a significantly firm anti-gay voting record, admitted to being a homosexual last week. He was arrested for DUI after leaving a popular gay nightclub in Sacramento, which prompted his public admission.

Ashburn's hypocrisy and deceitfulness to his own lifestyle is monumental. He said in a radio interview that he had tried to keep his personal life separate from his professional life until his arrest. He also said he didn't believe he has been a staunch anti-gay activist, insisting the way he has voted on social issues reflected his constituent's views.

This is pretty ironic when you consider that Ashburn, who represents one the most conservative districts in California, organized a Traditional Values Coalition rally in Bakersfield in 2005 to support a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriage. He also voted against bills that included expanding California's mental health services for gay youth, struck down measures to protect gay prisoners from violence and did not support creating a day to honor the famous slain gay activist Harvey Milk.

By the look of things, it appears that Ashburn was very aware and involved in every decision that he made, since he was the sole organizer of many anti-gay marriage rallies in California. He was also known to make public attacks on supporters of same-sex marriages.

This is not the first time that an anti-gay public figure has turned out to be involved in homosexual acts. A few years ago, Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover cop in an airport bathroom. This case garnered major attention for the fact that Craig had voted twice against adding the words "sexual orientation" to hate crime laws.

There was also the case of Ted Haggard, one of former President George W. Bush's advisors. Haggard had a reputation as a strong anti-gay activist. As an Evangelical pastor, he taught that homosexuality was an abomination. He was later arrested for paying male prostitutes for sex.

People are not angry that Ashburn is gay, but because he is a fraud. Ashburn boldly lied to the people in his district. He pretended to be something that he was not to get votes. It allowed him to make decisions that adversely affected a minority group of which he is a part.

Hopefully Ashburn and other closeted hate-mongering public figures can be true to themselves and honest to the public, because what is done in the dark eventually comes to light.