Openly gay West Sacramento Mayor
Christopher Cabaldon says the anti-gay GOP lawmaker arrested
Wednesday morning for drunk driving shortly after leaving a gay bar
in Sacramento is a regular at gay nightspots throughout the city.
Police stopped California State Senator
Roy Ashburn's state issued vehicle after they witnessed the car
swerving erratically around 2AM Wednesday morning and charged him
with driving under the influence. An unidentified man was in the car
with Ashburn, who had that night been at Faces, a popular Sacramento
gay bar.
Ashburn, a Republican who has
campaigned on a family values platform and is a father of four, has a
history of opposing gay rights. He scored zero on Equality
California's 2009
Legislative Scorecard, a gay rights record issued by the state's
leading advocate.
“To live a secret life and at the
same time be attacking exactly the people who you're one of – but
that you're too ashamed to admit – that's the hypocrisy that I
think for folks, whether you're gay or not, is just unacceptable in
politics,” Cabaldon told local CBS
affiliate CBS13 on Thursday.
Last year, Cabaldon wrote on his
Facebook page: “It wouldn't bother me so bad to see Roy Ashburn at
[gay bar] Badlands with a boy if he didn't have such a bad voting
record on gay rights.”
During the 2009 legislative session,
Ashburn voted against a resolution that urged repeal of Proposition
8, the state's gay marriage ban, a bill that proclaims May 22nd
as Harvey Milk Day in memory of San Francisco's first openly gay
politician, and a measure that would allow transgender people to
obtain a court order reflecting their correct gender, among others.
His anti-gay record, however, does not
end at the Statehouse. Ashburn is supported by opponents of gay
marriage and has spoken at anti-gay rights rallies.
Ashburn, free on a $1,400 bond, has
taken a “personal leave,” according to his spokesman.