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.

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.

KARL ROVE AND HIS GAY DAD

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.

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

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 … ”).

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.

WHY I OUTED GAY 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. 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.