State Sen. Roy Ashburn doesn’t just represent a red district.  Locals call it “Texas meets Orange County,” a place where an unknown local pastor got elected to the school board because he had “Pastor” in front of his name on the ballot, and where the anti-gay Prop 8 was approved by a 3-to-1 margin.

San Francisco Chronicle reporter Demian Bulwa traveled to Kern County, Calif., to talk to local residents about Ashburn’s admission this week that he is gay.  He came out on a local radio talk show after being arrested in Sacramento for driving under the influence.  He had just left a downtown gay bar.

Bulwa writes:

Conservative leaders call him a sinner, while gay-rights activists say he wielded anti-gay votes as a shield to protect his secret. But in cafes, salons and saloons, many regular folks voiced the same opinion: It’s better to have a gay politician voting against gay rights than to have a straight one voting for them.

While lauding him for being a politician who could set aside his sexuality, however, many voters admitted they couldn’t do the same.

They said Ashburn never would have been elected if voters knew he was gay – not even to the Kern County Board of Supervisors, where he started out in 1984. Whether that makes Ashburn a liar or a pragmatic politician who knows his constituency is the subject of hot debate.

“He votes, more or less, along Kern County lines,” said Mel Lawrence, a 68-year-old country musician, as he prepared to take the stage Monday night at Trout’s bar on the edge of Bakersfield. “I know he might have voted against how he truly felt at times. I don’t know if you’d call that hypocritical or just doing his job.”

Like many people, Lawrence described his outlook as deeply rooted but complicated. He grew up in Texas and Phoenix, attending conservative Pentecostal churches, but he also has a lesbian stepdaughter he loves.

“I just don’t believe in it,” he said of same-sex marriage.

Across the bar, Vince Edwards, a 29-year-old electrician and ex-Marine from Texas, said he had no problem with what gay people did “behind closed doors,” but admitted he was “just prejudiced against gays. I’m just not comfortable with them.”

Read the full article here.