Karl Rove And His Gay Dad - The Atlantic

Contents:

• KARL ROVE AND HIS GAY DAD
• KARL ROVE AND HIS GAY DAD
• BH CAMPAIGN CHIEF AND FORMER RNC CHAIR KEN MEHLMAN: I’M GAY
• WHY I OUTED GAY REPUBLINS

KARL ROVE AND HIS GAY DAD

It's not exactly startlg to see that Karl Rove has nied he was aware his own father was gay, even as he guid the GOP to anti-gay wedge polics the last (the Christianists, he olly lculated, had potentially way more vot for the GOP than gays and their fai). But is important to note that is unte that he had no ia his dad was gay or that he was unaware was the reason for his parents' divorce.

KARL ROVE AND HIS GAY DAD

But Rove's cynil attempts to wage culture war agast gay upl, servicemembers and our fai surely make this a legimate nnot try to stroy gay upl' marriag while claimg privacy as soon as you face your own divorce or are asked unfortable qutns about squarg your policy posns and your father's fact, Rove's experience is as good an argument as any for gettg over nial and for embracg marriage equaly as any. His own fay was torn apart by nial of homosexualy.

His experience shows that supprsg, stigmatizg and preventg solid gay relatnships is anti-fay, not pro-fay.

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

Bh's personal ease and faiary and empathy wh the actual gay and transgenr people he knew and worked people should not be monized. 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. ” 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 … ”).

WHY I OUTED GAY REPUBLINS

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.