Joining with California State Senate Democrats, Sen. Roy Ashburn yesterday voted to approve a resolution declaring June 2010 as LGBT Pride Month, which passed in a 25-9 vote. That almost makes up for all those times he voted against the gays — not bothering to even read the legislation — so he could hide in the hallways and avoid speculation, right?
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Golly! What a swell guy!!!
Lamar
Before everyone starts criticizing him again remember that at least he is doing something positive now, this alone won’t make up for the wrong he has donein the past but at least it’s a start. I hope this will be the beginning of many more pro-gay votes from him.
j
I don’t care what he does to atone. He’s still an asshole!
asa1973
I will always be a queen. But I don’t want to become a bitter one when I’m old. So, I’m going to keep watching this guy…and prepare myself for forgiveness. I did a lot of horrid, inexcusable shit when I was still in the closet – whether a public servant or not. I became a better person whey I finally came out. Say “bitter” if you absolutely cannot relate.
Timothy
I’m not a fan of Roy Ashburn, but I don’t get criticizing someone when they do what is right.
But, then again, I’m not motivated by partisan hatred.
Cam
Siiiigh, he’s headed in the right direction, but how cynical. He was defending all his anti-gay votes in the past saying he was representing his constituents, and now that he is completely out suddenly has turned into a pro-gay voter. I guess it wasn’t really your constituents forcing you to vote before huh?
Anyway, nice to see him on the right track anyway.
Rob Moore
I will give him the benefit of a doubt. If he continues on this path, he can eventually redeem himself in my eyes. It is a beginning.
Andrew
This is a tough situation. In my opinion he should have immediately resigned and not been part of any passing of laws as he had misrepresented himself to his electorate and to the general population. Just because he is voting gay positive now does not make him automatically a better person rather it fulfills his track record of being opportunistic.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Sorry Assburn deserves no pass . He was living a semi-open Gay life. A regular at some Gay bars, probably hooking as well. (The persons in those bars who knew him and of his record should be ashamed). He was dragged kicking and screaming out of his hatefilled closet. He hid in the hallways when the measures were read then slipped back in to vote for all things anti-Gay. Why didn’t he simply not return to vote??? Many legislators do not cast votes on a high percentage of the measures they are eligible to vote on and are still reelected many times. Now that he has been exposed as a Gay man, his former rightwing lunatic supporters won’t ever support him.
Suddenly he has “seen the Gay light”. More like any port in a storm…………………
B
No. 9 · PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS “Now that [Ashburn] has been exposed as a Gay man, his former rightwing lunatic supporters won’t ever support him. Suddenly he has ‘seen the Gay light’. More like any port in a storm…………………”
Not true at all because Ashburn cannot run again due to California’s term limits law. He’s not trying to win gay votes for a subsequent election and his “rightwing lunatic supporters” don’t matter for a simple reason – he cannot run for another term in the state senate, and he already had hit the term limit for the state assembly. When you hit the limit, you are banned from that office for the rest of your life, so you can’t just sit one term out or go back and forth (citation: http://www.cgs.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=58 )
It’s not like he is on the short list for governor either.
Jaroslaw
I said on the other thread about him, he will never get a pass for what he did, he can never make it up. But IF he really does something meaningful like spending lots of his own money and time to help Gay causes maybe he can be forgiven far in the future.
Voting for Gay Pride month is a baby step in the right direction, but that is all.
B
No. 11 · Jaroslaw wrote, “I said on the other thread about him, he will never get a pass for what he did, he can never make it up.”
Check his record. I couldn’t find one anti-LGBT bill that he introduced, and none of the votes were close enough that one person would make a difference in the outcome. He didn’t make homophobic statements either as far as I know.
If anyone has any verifiable information to the contrary, please post it, with citations to legitimate news sites – so far, it seems that his timidity protected him from doing any real harm.
trickstertara
If he’s finally embracing who he is and can at last accept himself as a gay man, that’s wonderful and I’m very happy for him. But he spent too many years NOT doing the job he was elected to do. I’m in Illinois so it’s not up to me to vote him out, but I do wonder what his constituents are thinking.
Bill Perdue
@B: It’s ‘B’, the voice of Leah Daughtry, claiming that since this closeted bigot didn’t actually bomb any gay bars or have publicity shots taken with Ahmadinejad at hangings in Iran that somehow Ashburn’s harmless.
Ashburn’s votes against us were not harmless. They empowered bigots. The right wing politics that he upheld, like the incessant hate speech of the cults (another downtrodden lot ‘B’ defends) are the direct cause of harassment, discrimination and violence. Especially against GLBT youth.
‘B’s incessant defense of scum like Ashburn and Rekers isn’t as effective as ‘B’ would like it to be because of his clumsy, boring propagandizing. And because we have his number. ‘B’ constantly bellyaches about the fact that people disapprove of his remarks no matter what he says. I expect that’s because so many people despise him.
Stay tuned for his next whine – ‘They lie about me and they’re out get me.” on As the Stomach Turns.
B
In No. 14 · Bill Perdue lied again, with his lies summarized by statements such as, “‘B’s incessant defense of scum like Ashburn and Rekers …”
Let’s see. I made purely factual statements about both of these dudes that were in no sense a “defense” of them. Ashburn did little damage because he was ineffective – in no cases would a one-vote change have made a difference and he voted the same as nearly every other Republican, plus he did not introduce any bills to discriminate against gays or lesbians – Ashburn was so closeted that he didn’t want to be seen even talking about LGBT issues. I didn’t say one word “defending” Rekers anti-LGBT activities (nor Ashburn’s for that matter). It’s hardly “defending” the dude when one states that the most likely reason that McCullen creep hired him was that it was nearly impossible to find anyone with any sort of credentials as an expert witness who would be willing to make statements as ludicrous as the ones Rekers seems to have made.
Otherwise, all I pointed out about Rekers is that the “proof” some people were trotting out about his personal life (e.g., how he contacted his rentboy) were based on unsubstantiated assumptions (“unsubstanitated” does not mean “true” or “false”, but rather “unproven”).
So, the real question should be, “What is the matter with Bill Perdue?” This character is apparently such an extreme control freak that he launches baseless personal attacks against anyone who disagrees with him in the slightest. It’s a sign of insanity.
Jaroslaw
#12 – “B” – Yeah, I get where you’re coming from, and goodness knows Bill Perdue is over the top, (and he like others on this site will lambaste you if you don’t agree with him 100%) but I have to agree with what I said, from the point of view that evil always succeeds when good men do nothing. I’m just as annoyed at other politicians who misrepresent themselves – do I need qualify my every post with a laundry list of caveats?
Perhaps I just believe differently than you do – even if he Assburn never initiated an anti LGBT bill, even if his one vote didn’t turn the tide, he still did what Bill said: his inaction empowered bigots and upheld the status quo.
Bill Perdue
@Jaroslaw: I think people wouldn’t ‘lambaste’ you so much if you weren’t such a catholic and an immigrant basher. Being a catholic on a GLBT blog is never going to be easy. Being an immigrant basher is a little easier because so many Obots and Republicans (as if there were a difference) are vocal in their bashing and many of them in their racism.
You tell us that you’re not much of a practising roman cultist anymore and we all wish you good and luck good speed on your journey away from the cult that abets child rapists by refusing to lay chagres agaisnt them, by mvoing them around from parish to parish and by giving them santcuary.
If you want to know where ‘B”s coming from all you have to do is examine his defense of every rightwing Republican or Democrat closeted piglet who gets caught with a dick in his mouth. ‘B’ refers to these swine as ‘dudes’. They’re not dudes, they’re pigs. And anyone who defends pigs is as unprincipled, as open to the highest bidder and as corrupt as a lawyer.
Jaroslaw
Bill – not that many people “lambaste” me, at least not in the special way that YOU do! But asking you to stop or think or realize there is more than one viewpoint is like asking excrement not to stink. For you, one side is 100% right and the other is 100% wrong. I have said over and over most things in life have some shades of grey but that obviously is too much for you grasp. Gosh even when I agree with you, look how you respond!
I WILL NOT allow you to call me an immigrant basher – anyone who is interested can read my posts on the other items here and see that is not the case. As for being Catholic, I can take the good things from it and try to apply it to my life -not to mention nowhere have I ever defended the Church’s decisions not to prosecute abusers.
I don’t see where “B” defends every rightwing -or closet case. READ if you can – he says clearly UNSUBSTANTIATED is not the same thing as untrue. Again, I’ve already agreed with you in that just because someone didn’t submit and anti-gay bill directly does not make him harmless. Far from it.
Bill Perdue
@Jaroslaw: There are only two sides. Those who bash immigrant and workers and those who stand up for the rights of all workers, immigrant or not.
You’re on the wrong side of that question. It’s a class question, not a national question.
Bill Perdue
[img]http://blog.thenationalcampaign.org/pregnant_pause/2009/12/02/dude-wtf.jpg[/img]
This is a dude…
[img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__ZN7r8_sviw/Rei_M8i5MDI/AAAAAAAAABU/f__hMnv1iLw/s400/1469824473_l.jpg[/img]
These are mugshots of bigoted pigs (except Rekers, he wasn’t arrested and mores the pity. These are not dudes…
[img]http://bumpshack.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/senator-roy-ashburn-gay-dui-arrest-mugshot-photos.jpgundefined[/img]
[img]uhttp://www.advocate.com/uploadedImages/ADVOCATE/NEWS/2010/2010-03/2010-03-16/Larry_Craigx390.jpgndefined[/img]
[img]http://www.orlandoweekly.com/sb/76613/10.jpg[/img]
B
No. 16 · Jaroslaw wrote, “Perhaps I just believe differently than you do – even if he Assburn never initiated an anti LGBT bill, even if his one vote didn’t turn the tide, he still did what Bill said: his inaction empowered bigots and upheld the status quo.”
But what I said about him was that he was ineffective.
He didn’t empower anyone – his side lost regardless of his votes because Republicans are outnumbered by Democrats in Sacramento. When he appeared at a pro-Proposition Eight rally, one of the persons who actually ran it thought he might be gay because he did such a tepid job of rallying the troops. It’s not just my opinion. Read http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-03-10/news/18383585_1_same-sex-marriage-gay-hot-debate/2 :
[begin quote]
Proposition 8, the November 2008 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, passed statewide by a vote of 52 to 48 percent. In Kern County, it won by 3-1.
“I describe it as Texas meets Orange County,” said Chad Vegas, a 36-year-old school board trustee and pastor.
He said he had run for office as an unknown but won in part because of a simple fact: He had “pastor” next to his name on the ballot.
Ally’s view
Vegas stood with Ashburn, a Catholic, at the Patriots Park rally in 2005. The pastor, whose father was killed in 1980 by a drunken driver while on patrol as a Bakersfield police officer, said Ashburn owes the public an explanation about his arrest – but not his sexuality, which he considers private.
Still, Vegas said he sees Ashburn as being in an identity crisis – and in deep trouble spiritually.
“I don’t think that Roy’s gay. I think he has homosexual inclinations,” Vegas said. Homosexuality, he said, “is a corruption of sexual desire. I actually think it’s harmful to him.”
Vegas said he had suspicions about Ashburn as long ago as the rally. For one thing, protesters – who vastly outnumbered their opponents – kept shouting, “We know you’re one of us, Roy!”
And then, Vegas said, there was Ashburn’s relative lack of enthusiasm. “Let’s just say it was not a great effort in rallying the troops on Roy’s part,” Vegas said.
[end quote]
B
No. 20 · Bill Perdue contorted himself figuratively by writing, “These are not dudes.”
For Perdue’s edification, he should read http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dude&defid=143172
In particular:
6. dude
1) Originally, “dude” meant a stuck up person who dressed overly well. It first emerged in the year 1883 in England.
2) Later it was used in the old west to mean a city person who moved to the west without actually know what he was doing. Synonymous with “city-slicker”
3) Later, in California, the term changed from these insults to a term meaning any male, human or otherwise. Sometimes it is used in reference to tom-girls. Now, it is often used for emphasis as well.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
I would “do” that “dude” in the pink shirt in a freakin’ heartbeat!! :-p
Bill Perdue
Dude is a term of familiarity, like Bubba in the South.
Only a bigot protector and liar like ‘B’ would have familiar, family like, feelings for sellout scum like Craig, Ashburn and Rekers. Expected, but still despicable.
B
No. 24 · Bill Perdue wrote, “Dude is a term of familiarity, like Bubba in the South,” followed by his usual dishonest personal attacks, thereby proving himself to be a pathological liar.
What a moron – the word “dude” has many meanings including the one I used (a term referring to a male of some sort). Usage has changed over the years and Perdue apparently has not kept up. His best excuse is senility.
Bill Perdue
As usual, ‘B’s been caught defending more hypocritical bigots. His terror at being exposed over and over is confirmed by his mudslinging. It’s a measure of his desperate squirming after being exposed in the hopeless task of validating bigots.
‘B’, Rekers, Ashburn, Craig – dudes of a feather flock together.
Cam
B, your issue is that he never “INTRODUCED” anti-gay legislation. Thats irrelevent. He voted for anti-gay legislation. Just because somebody only held the money and drove the getaway car doesn’t make them innocent of the robbery.
JamesStone
I am all for outing ALL of these closeted politicians. Their actions are one of the biggest obstacles to gay rights in this country.
I wish one of Charlie Christ’s ex-tricks would come out with a tell all story. He is another one who has supported anti gay legislation. Lindsey Graham too-he recently voted not to repeal DADT!! How pathetic are these guys??
B
No. 27 · Cam wrote, “B, your issue is that he never ‘INTRODUCED’ anti-gay legislation. Thats irrelevent. He voted for anti-gay legislation. Just because somebody only held the money and drove the getaway car doesn’t make them innocent of the robbery.”
Very bad analogy – someone who just drives the getaway car typically gets treated less harshly than the guy who shoots the bank teller, or the person who planned the heist.
The fact that he never introduced anti-gay legislation is relevant to how much damage he did. His vote was the same as nearly every other Republican and it seems he didn’t even try to convince others to vote the way he did.
That makes him “Public Enemy Number 500”, not “Public Enemy Number 1”, You know, more like a pickpocket than a robber who uses a gun and kills his victims so there won’t be any witnesses.
It’s not like Ashburn was behaving like Anita Bryant, running around trying to actively organize anti-LGBT campaigns on a large scale.
Bill Perdue
Terence’s’ “Homo sum, humani a me nihil alienum puto”, roughly translated as “I am a human being, nothing human is alien to me” and Will Rogers’ “I never met a man I didn’t like” are turned on their head by ‘B’, whose motto is “I never met a homohating bigot I didn’t like…”
B
In No 30 and in No. 26, Bill Perdue continues his lies and personal vendetta. He then complains about “mudslinging” simply when the fact that he is lying is pointed out as a response to those lies. This guy is as much of a hypocrite as any publicly homophobic but secretly gay politician out there. Obviously Perdue wants to lie with impunity, proving himself to be a truly slimy character.
Earth to Perdue: if you don’t want your lying ways pointed out, then refrain from posting lies about others posting here. It’s really not that hard to do unless one is mentally ill and in dire need of some medication.
And in case Perdue really is that stupid, he needs to learn that calling someone “ineffective” is not “defending” that person.
Bill Perdue
‘B’ is a paid liar doing damage control for BigotCentral USA.
The inevitable happened. People caught on. He’s now widely recognized as a grubby little lawyer for anything and everything bigoted and antigay.
And it pisses him off that someone’s lifted the rock he’s under, exposing his sliminess to the hard light of criticism. Desperate, he throws mud and whines interminably.
It won’t help.
B
In No 32, Bill Perdue lied some more, this time making the outrageous claim that I’m being paid by some unknown entity, presumably to put comments on QUEERTY – all based on a single letter as personally identifying information.
People who lie as much as Perdue does, particularly when the lies are so easily caught, have serious mental problems. Perdue should try to get the professional help he obviously needs – the term pathological liar comes to mind given his consistent behavior.
Bill Perdue
“B”, unable to stop lying about his consistent defense and appeasement of bigots and their toadies is still slinging mud left and left and still whining.
Caught lying over and over, he really has one of two choices. Either he stops lying, and he won’t do that, he lies some more about his critics.
Pathetic.
B
In No. 34 · Bill Perdue continues to provide more and more evidence that he is a pathological liar. In No 32, he accused me of being “paid” by someone to push a particular point of view, something of which he has zero evidence and that is completely false. Then when called on his bald-faced lies, he lies again by accusing me of “mudslinging” which, of course, is just what Perdue does continually making it a classic case of projection.
Perdue seems to think he has a divine right to lie about people and that nobody has a right to point out that his lies are, well, lies.
Bill Perdue
‘B’ unable to stop defending self-loathing scum like Ashburn and Rekers lies when caught.
Sad, really, for those of us who have to endure it.
B
No. 36 · Bill Perdue lies some more by claiming I was defending people I never defended, thus providing still more evidence of Perdue being a pathlogical liar.
Facts: calling someone “ineffective” is not “defending them”.
Pointing out technical flaws in discussions about how Rekers found his rentboy is similarly not defending him, but rather it is simply adding useful information to a discussion. It’s hardly defending Rekers to note that, instead of starting his search at http://rentboy.com he might have found another web page or search result that had a link to the rentboy’s contact page. It’s similarly not defending him to note that someone who cannot lift a bag at the start of a 10 day trip due to some sort of surgery (perhaps as minor as having cyst or similar bump removed, where they don’t want you yanking on something until the incision heals) could be capable of lifting the bags at the end of the trip. It’s not like anyone was denying the nude/erotic massages he was getting.
Bill Perdue
‘B’ is unable to stop defending self-loathing scum like Ashburn and Rekers and lies when caught.
Sad, really, for those of us who have to endure it.
B
No. 38 · Bill Perdue continues repeating his lies, following Goebbels propaganda trick of telling a lie repeatedly in the hope it will stick. Read No. 37 for what was really said and it will be clear the Perdue is lying as usual.
Bill Perdue
‘B’ continues to defend pigs like Ashburn and Rekers and buys into the racist theory that somehow Balcks were a key factor in the deferat of SSM in California.
Then he claims that his critics are insane, Nazi style propagandists, pathological liars and have spots and halitosis. A bit over the top, even for a compulsive liar like ‘B’.
Run back to the closet in your log cabin, ‘B’ and close the door behind you. You’ll feel more at home than in a world full of critics who challenge your demented defense of vermin.
B
In No. 40 · Bill Perdue continued to provide evidence that he may in fact be a pathological liar – he’s been posting one lie after another as part of his personal vendetta, and the lies are obvious – a clear misprepresentation of comments I made (and backed up with citations). He then goes for the “royal we” by using terms like “critics” (plural) to refer to himself. Perdue is not a critic but rather a mindless ideologue with an agenda, thus sharing a key characteristic of various anti-gay organization that will put out any lie imaginable.
Bill Perdue
The more you shine the light on ‘B’s defense of piglets like Ashburn and Rekers the more he vomits on the internet.
Ewwwweee, next time lets use salt.
B
In No. 42 · Bill Perdue continues his pack of lies, hoping that people will believe him due to his repetition. This guy is one sick puppy.
Bill Perdue
Squealing like a stuck piglet, ‘B’ waddles into the night, defender of bigger pigs like Ashburn and Rekers and of the racist notion that Blacks defeated SSM in California.
As the Brits say, vomit making.
Jaroslaw
Give it a rest you two! You’re clogging up my e-mail box. It is kinda plain you guys disagree. STOP IT.