Ken Mehlman, Bh Campaign Manager, Com Out as Gay - CBS News

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.

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

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.

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

Mehlman said Print Bh "is no homophobe" but acknowledged that the Bh admistratn ed antigay iativ for polil ga. (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.

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

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.

Mehlman had the past nied that he was gay.

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

“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.

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

” 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.