Anti-gay lawmaker arrested for DUI on his way home from gay nightclub

This is the sort of story that confirms many of the suspicions surrounding homophobia:

Sources tell CBS13 a state senator from Southern California was arrested for allegedly driving drunk after leaving Faces, a gay nightclub in midtown Sacramento, early Wednesday morning [...]

The Sacramento County district attorney says Republican state Sen. Roy Ashburn’s blood-alcohol level was .14 percent when he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving near the Capitol.

Ashburn, a father of four, is a Republican Senator representing parts of Kern, Tulare and San Bernardino Counties with a history of opposing gay rights [...]

A male passenger, who was not identified as a lawmaker, was also in the car but was not detained.

The story of the overtly homophobic lawmaker caught in the act (or nearly in the act) has become almost a cliché at this point.   Of course, clichés are often as not fraught with deeper truths.  Obvious truths, even.  I say once something becomes a cliché you can almost – not quite, but almost – count on its veracity.  It’s like when a proper noun becomes a verb, you know something must be working – like “Google” for instance.  That’s how clichés work.

I’d say this particular cliché has reached maturity.  This is not to suggest that all discomfort people may feel with the idea of homosexuality is wrong or bigoted.  It’s only natural for people to resist change, to resist any break with cultural norms – especially sexual norms.  With many breaks from cultural or sexual norms, this makes sense.  There is a reason we have these norms, after all.  We should keep some of them and lose others.

I’m all for promoting marriage myself.  Free love can lead to all sorts of social problems, not the least of which is the spread of disease.  Which is one of many reasons I think we should support gay rights – especially gay marriage.  Free love wasn’t so good for the gay community, either – and the AIDS epidemic is evidence enough of that.  Gay marriage will bring one of our stronger social institutions into the gay community – and that’s good for everyone – even for closeted, confused and ultimately sad men like Roy Ashburn.

How can we view this DUI as anything less than a cry for help, after all?  We can call him a homophobic hypocrite all we like, but in the end it’s really a very sad story.