The openly gay mayor of West Sacramento says that he’s spotted state Sen. Roy Ashburn (R), who has racked up a consistently anti-gay voting record over the years, at gay clubs a number of times.
Interviewed by CBS13, the station that reported that Ashburn was at a Sacramento gay club before being arrested for DUI — with a man in the car — early Wednesday morning, Mayor Christopher Cabaldon said:
“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.”
Watch the interview here.
CBS13’s Koula Gianulias also reports that Cabaldon called out Ashburn in a Facebook posting about six months ago.
“It wouldn’t bother me so bad to see Roy Ashburn at Badlands with a boy if he didn’t have such a bad voting record on gay rights,” he wrote.
Badlands is a Sacramento dance club that offers a lighted waterfall and a lush outdoor patio, according to its Web site.
The owner of Faces, the club where Ashburn reportedly was hanging out before his arrest, told CBS 13 that he can’t confirm whether Ashburn was there Tuesday night because the club was packed with 400 patrons for a Latin drag queen beauty pageant.
The manager of Faces told TPMmuckraker yesterday that she didn’t see Ashburn that night.
In other developments:
Ashburn has taken a “personal leave” from the state Senate, his spokesman says.
The Bakersfield Californian, Ashburn’s home newspaper, had asked him twice about his sexuality in the past several years. After hearing a rumor that Ashburn was going to be outed by another newspaper, a columnist for the paper asked Ashburn last year if he is gay. Ashburn replied: “Why would that be anyone’s business?”
Ashburn’s blood alcohol level was .14 when he was picked up by police, according to the Sacramento DA. The legal limit is .08.
Late Update: In 2005, Ashburn held a rally against gay marriage to protect “the future of our children.”
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