In California, the ‘outing’ controversy has resurfaced, following the outing of a prominent Californian State Senator who has a consistent record who opposed LGBT rights initiatives.

State Senator Roy Ashburn (Republican) was elected in 2002. The divorced conservative Catholic (??) senator has a profoundly conservative antigay voting record, including voting against state recognition of out of state same-sex marriages, opposed a state legislature resolution condemning Proposition 8 (which repealed the right to same-sex marriage in that state), the expansion of state anti-discrimination laws and the declaration of Harvey Milk Day, commemorating the life of the slain San Francisco city supervisor and elected official.

Ashburn was arrested on drink driving charges in a Californian state government vehicle after apparently leaving Faces, a Sacramento gay pub. He had an unidentified male passenger with him. Ending speculation about his sexual orientation, he has since come out although he has also defended his antigay religious beliefs, arguing that his religious views and ‘responsibility to his constituents’ took ‘precedence’ over whatever his ‘personal’ views on LGBT issues might be. Ashburn has said he’ll retire after the end of this senatorial term and will not seek re-election.

All of this raises questions about the practice and ethics of outing someone previously closeted. Is it justifiable if the person had an antigay voting record, like Ashburn and the ‘bobblefooted’ Idaho federal Senator Larry Craig, arrested for allegedly ’soliciting’ public sex in an airport lavatory? What about the right to privacy in this context? And what about other aspects of someone’s life, like undisclosed or extreme fundamentalist Christian religious views?

Recommended:

Larry Gross: Contested Closets: The Politics and Ethics of Outing: Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press: 1993.

Senator Ashburn’s Voting Record: http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=9694