Sympathy for the devil?

Once again we are faced with a conservative, anti-gay Republican, being revealed to be gay.

This has become so common that it's barely news anymore.

This time, the switch is that after he got caught he decided to speak out in favor of gay rights.

Roy Ashburn, the California legislator who came out in March after years of operating as a "family values" Republican, is now speaking out in favor of gay rights.

It's easy to be hostile and dismissive of these guys. In fact, that is my usual attitude. I am entirely supportive of efforts to out gay politicians who take public positions against gay rights.

On the other hand, you can't help but recognize that they, too, are victims. Just imagine the suffering they must go through, having been raised in a society and religion that has drummed into them that they themselves, at the very core of their being, are irredeemably evil and corrupt.

I', glad that Ashburn has decided to come out as a gay rights advocate. I hope that more of his kind will do the same.