Former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman Says He's Gay, Regrets Party's Posn : It's All Polics : NPR

Contents:

• KEN MEHLMAN, BH CAMPAIGN MANAGER, COM OUT AS GAY
• FORMER G.O.P. LEAR SAYS HE IS GAY
• BH CAMPAIGN CHIEF AND FORMER RNC CHAIR KEN MEHLMAN: I’M GAY
• KEN MEHLMAN, SENR REPUBLIN PARTY FIGURE, REVEALS HE IS GAY
• STRATEGIST OUT OF CLOSET AND INTO FRAY, THIS TIME FOR GAY MARRIAGE
• FORMER RNC CHAIR KEN MEHLMAN SAYS HE'S GAY, REGRETS PARTY'S POSN

KEN MEHLMAN, BH CAMPAIGN MANAGER, COM OUT AS GAY

Former Republin Natnal Commtee chairman and Bh-Cheney mpaign manager Ken Mehlman has announced publicly that he is gay, CBS News chief polil nsultant and polics edor for The Atlantic Marc Ambr reports. Mehlman told Ambr that he had recently e to the ncln that he is gay and was lookg to bee an advote for gay marriage.

He went public part bee he expected to be asked about his sexualy when beme known he was participatg a fundraiser next month for the Amerin Foundatn for Equal Rights (AFER), which is supportg a legal challenge to California's Proposn 8 iative banng gay marriage. Mehlman said Print Bh "is no homophobe" but acknowledged that the Bh admistratn ed antigay iativ for polil ga.

FORMER G.O.P. LEAR SAYS HE IS GAY

(Mehlman regularly nied that he was gay. ) Rogers rpond to the news that Mehlman was g out by awardg him a "Roy Cohn Award" for "managg the most anti-gay printial mpaigns history.

"Ken Mehlman is horridly homophobic and no matter how orchtrated his g out is, our muny should hold him acuntable for his past, " Rogers wrote. Mehlman told Ambr he unrstands that some people the gay muny will be upset that he did not e out until he was out of ernment. He acknowledged that if he had e to terms wh his sexual orientatn earlier, "I uld have worked agast [the Feral Marriage Amendment]" and "reached out to the gay muny the way I reached out to Ain Amerins.

Lear Says He Is Gay ADVERTISEMENTFormer G. Lear Says He Is GayAug. Bh’s mpaign manager 2004 and a former chairman of the Republin Natnal Commtee, has revealed that he is gay and is workg to advance the e of same-sex nfid his sexual orientatn to fay and iends the last few months, he said an terview Wednday.

BH CAMPAIGN CHIEF AND FORMER RNC CHAIR KEN MEHLMAN: I’M GAY

Mehlman had the past nied that he was gay. “Obvly, I look back and wish I was the place I am today and been able to do that wh the gay muny. ”A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 16 of the New York edn wh the headle: Former Republin Lear Disclos That He Is Gay.

He out of the closet and talks about gay marriage, Karl Rove, and Jay L. Clenn-Pool/GettyKen Mehlman, Print Bh’s mpaign manager 2004 and a former chairman of the Republin Natnal Commtee, has told fay and associat that he is gay.

He agreed to answer a reporter’s qutns, he said, bee, now private life, he wants to bee an advote for gay marriage and anticipated that qutns would arise about his participatn a late-September fundraiser for the Amerin Foundatn for Equal Rights (AFER), the group that supported the legal challenge to California’s ballot iative agast gay marriage, Proposn 8. He sisted, too, that Print Bh “was no homophobe.

KEN MEHLMAN, SENR REPUBLIN PARTY FIGURE, REVEALS HE IS GAY

” Mehlman often wonred why gay voters never formed mon e wh Republin opponents of Islamic jihad, which he lled “the greatt anti-gay force the world right now. ”Mehlman’s learship posns the GOP me at a time when the party was steppg up s anti-gay activi—such as the 2006 distributn Wt Virgia of lerature lkg homosexualy to atheism, or the ls-than-subtle, d language the party’s platform (“Attempts to refe marriage a sgle state or cy uld have ser nsequenc throughout the untry … ”). He was aware that Karl Rove, Print Bh’s chief strategic adviser, had been workg wh Republins to make sure that anti-gay iativ and referenda would appear on November ballots 2004 and 2006 to help Republins.

Mehlman acknowledg that if he had publicly clared his sexualy sooner, he might have played a role keepg the party om phg an anti-gay agenda. I didn’t do this the gay muny at all. ”He said that he “really wished” he had e to terms wh his sexual orientatn earlier, “so I uld have worked agast [the Feral Marriage Amendment]” and “reached out to the gay muny the way I reached out to Ain Amerins.

He and his iends say that he is aware that he will no longer ntrol the story about his inty—which will simultaneoly expose old wounds, ve schanue, and legimize anger among gay-rights activists both parti who did not hi their sexual orientatns.

STRATEGIST OUT OF CLOSET AND INTO FRAY, THIS TIME FOR GAY MARRIAGE

He was the subject of an outg mpaign by gay-rights activist Mike Rogers, startg when Mehlman was Bh’s mpaign manager.

Rogers’s csas agast closeted gay Republins spl the anized gay lobby Washgton but were undoubtedly effective: He drove several elected officials, cludg Virgia Reprentative Ed Shrock, om office, phed out a would-be printial mpaign manager for Gee Allen well before Allen was set to n, slung mors about Senator Larry Craig’s sexual orientatn well before Craig’s cint a Mneapolis airport bathroom, and even managed to make homosexualy a wedge issue wh the party’s activist 2006, Rogers ught up to Mehlman and asked him why he gave “so many nfg answers to social nservativ about your homosexualy, ” and followed up by askg whether Mehlman knew of a man who Rogers had claimed was Mehlman’s secret partner.

Mehlman nied to Rogers that he had given nflictg answers and said that the man qutn was a law-school several discsns I’ve had wh Mehlman sce he stepped down om the Republin Natnal Commtee 2007, he never volunteered rmatn about his sexual orientatn, although charg that he helped pri over a rurgence anti-gay sentiment were clearly an ongog burn to disclosure at this stage of Mehlman’s life strik one close iend as beg like a cisn to jump off of a high divg board: Mehlman knows that there is plenty of water below, but is still ighteng to look down and make the leap.

FORMER RNC CHAIR KEN MEHLMAN SAYS HE'S GAY, REGRETS PARTY'S POSN

Mehlman is the most powerful Republin history to intify as gay. Bee his tenure as RNC chairman and his time at the center of the Bh polil mache cid wh the Republin Party’s attempts to explo anti-gay prejudic and cement the allegiance of social nservativ, his claratn to the world is at once a personal act and an act of polil speech. Mehlman once joked public that although he was not gay, the mors put a crimp on his social life.

He adms to havg misled several people who asked him about his sexualy said that he plans to be an advote for gay rights wh the GOP, that he remas proud to be a Republin, and that his polil inty is not fed by any one issue. ”“I hope that we, as a party, would wele gay and lbian supporters.

I also thk there needs to be, the gay muny, robt and bipartisan support [for] marriage rights. ”Ed Gillpie, a former RNC chairman and long-time iend of Mehlman, said that “ is signifint that a former chairman of the Republin Natnal Commtee is openly gay and that he is supportive of gay marriage. ” Although Gillpie himself oppos gay marriage, he poted to party stalwarts like former Vice Print Dick Cheney and strategist Mary Matal as open advot for gay rights who had not been dmmed out of the party.