Ken Mehlman's Gay Dilemma: Insi the Md of a Conflicted Man - CBS News

Contents:

• KEN MEHLMAN, BH CAMPAIGN MANAGER, COM OUT AS GAY
• BH CAMPAIGN CHIEF AND FORMER RNC CHAIR KEN MEHLMAN: I’M GAY
• FORMER G.O.P. LEAR SAYS HE IS GAY
• KEN MEHLMAN, SENR REPUBLIN PARTY FIGURE, REVEALS HE IS GAY
• FORMER REPUBLIN PARTY CHAIRMAN KEN MEHLMAN ADMS HE'S GAY
• SENR REPUBLIN KEN MEHLMAN OUT AS GAY
• FORMER RNC CHAIRMAN KEN MEHLMAN COM OUT: I'M GAY
• KEN MEHLMAN'S GAY DILEMMA: INSI THE MD OF A CONFLICTED MAN

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.

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

FORMER G.O.P. LEAR SAYS 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.

” 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.

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

”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 … ”).

FORMER REPUBLIN PARTY CHAIRMAN KEN MEHLMAN ADMS HE'S GAY

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.

SENR REPUBLIN KEN MEHLMAN OUT AS GAY

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.

FORMER RNC CHAIRMAN KEN MEHLMAN COM OUT: I'M GAY

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.

Mehlman is the most powerful Republin history to intify as gay.

KEN MEHLMAN'S GAY DILEMMA: INSI THE MD OF A CONFLICTED MAN

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.