SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – A Republican state lawmaker who was forced to reveal he is gay after a recent arrest for drunken driving spoke out passionately in favor of gay rights during a recent legislative session, urging his fellow senators to “rise above discrimination” and support letting gays serve openly in the military.

Sen. Roy Ashburn also weighed in on a bill designed to protect clergy who refuse to perform same-sex marriages.

“I am no longer willing or able to remain silent on issues that affect sexual orientation, the rights of individuals, and so I, um, I’m doing something that is quite different and foreign to me. And it’s highly emotional,” Ashburn told fellow senators.

Ashburn said he would not be speaking at all were it not for his drunken driving arrest in March after he left a gay-friendly nightclub near the state Capitol.

Days later, he told a radio station audience in his hometown of Bakersfield that he is gay. He has since plead guilty to misdemeanor drunken driving.

“Does anyone really believe that a person’s sexual orientation affects their ability to serve our nation and protect our freedom?” he said, supporting a resolution urging Congress to change the military’s policy on gays.

“The answer is that being gay or straight has nothing to do with ability, devotion, courage, honor, skill and loyalty, the characteristics that I think we would all agree are desirable and necessary for those who serve in our national military,” Ashburn said. “The current policy of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is clearly out of date and discriminatory.”

He cited conservative icon Barry Goldwater’s view that government should stay out of private lives.

“It calls upon our nation’s best instincts and seeks to correct a basic discrimination that is hurtful to people and to our country,” he said of SJR9, the resolution by Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, who is openly gay. “I respectfully ask that we rise above discrimination and vote aye on this resolution.”

No other Republican spoke, but Kehoe praised Ashburn for his support.

“We have been a part of a very important civil rights discussion, and we have been on the right side of it,” Kehoe said.

It passed on a 24-7 vote.

Ashburn voted against SB906, by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who also is gay.

Leno’s bill would protect clergy who refuse to perform same-sex marriages. Ashburn supported protecting religious freedom but objected to the bill’s use of the term “civil marriage.”

He said the wording will cause confusion because voters in 2008 approved Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that limits marriage to a man and a woman.

“For me, gay marriage is a very complicated issue, and I wish that this bill only dealt with that first portion of ensuring that ... there is no fall out, no repercussion,” Ashburn said.

Leno’s bill passed on a 23-11 vote.