Ex-GOP Chair Mehlman Says He's Gay
 

Former Bush campaign chief tells magazine he's gay

Ex-GOP chair says he will advocate for gay marriage, regrets not coming out earlier


Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager in 2004 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has told family and associates that he is gay, The Atlantic magazine's politics editor reported Wednesday.

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disclaimer/

I still don't think people should HAVE to "come out of the closet" (as in, I wish people never had to be IN the closet just as I've never had to "realize" and announce my heterosexuality). And this shouldn't be "news," I guess.

/disclaimer

It's good that he has "come out" now and will advocate gay marriage. I know people who think that certain political parties, religions, and other categorical distinctions (i.e. "masculine men") have less homosexuals than others. No, people just feel that they have to hide their sexual orientation and/or are struggling with their sexual orientation.

Is water still wet today??

:rolleyes:

Is that your way of saying that you knew Mehlman was gay and that he was going to formally come out despite people's ignorance?

Nope...just surprise surprise...yet ANOTHER congressperson 'comes out'.

Not directed at you in particular, just that why is this even news anymore?

Just making sure I haven't been drinking the wrong water.

That's good that you're applying this to all congresspeople (of which probably 50ish 'should' be gay, depending on which statistics you believe), because it sure seemed you were pointing it at closeted Republicans.

Because there aren't many openly-gay people in high government offices? Because Barney Frank still gets openly mocked? Because states are banning gay marriage? Because ERAs still exclude homosexuality? Etc.

It's also odd that he's asking why it's news when "yet ANOTHER congressperson comes out," since Ken Mehlman has never been a member of Congress.

Oh, snap.

And...

The Japanese equivalent for here, here, here! (love the new sig)

I knew that if anyone caught it, you would. :D

And I really do have a list. ;)

Hopefully Daemonseid was typing figuratively and knows WHY this is "news."

LOL @ Mehlman being in Congress

These days I figure if anyone is a conservative campaigning against Gay Marriage that they're probably closeted.

/sarcasm

But really, it's ceased to surprise me, even if the "coming out" varies from being honest to getting caught with a call-boy.

Nope not at all. Our congresspeople whichever side of the aisle they are on are getting caught in bathrooms, expensive hookers, drugs, in hotels you name it so again...to ME, this isn't news.


:)


Matter of fact here is an interesting take on how his homosexuality has been an 'open secret' for years and it also tries to differentiate between it being 'a rumor' or 'a suspicion'.

I am saying this to say, I would not be surprised at all if DC has an unwritten policy for 'don't ask, don't tell' among their ranks on the Hill.

Come on now, how many people knew that John Edwards was tipping and was 'shocked' when it came out that he was?

I think if it had been that widely known he wouldn't have been a presidential candidate. That is, a) most people wouldn't have voted for him and b) the Dems would have pulled their support because it would have made him unelectable. So, I'm going with a lot of people were quite surprised.

You also neglected to comment on the fact that this guy's not in Congress.

^^^Thank you...quite true, thus I am corrected.

As a matter of fact let me change that by saying I am not surprised that any of our government officials regardless of their status (elected, non elected, hired, appointed, etc) gets caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

I still think that somebody has dirt on everybody and everybody has dirt on somebody, it's just that how many palms are getting greased to keep that dirt quiet.

As I said a long time back, you can't walk through the political playground without getting your feet dirty.

Now, here is a question to put onto the table, since he apparently the 'highest ranking GOPer" to have ever come out, what has his position been (not now) on gay rights?

I fail to see why this is news. Maybe it is just me, but I really dont care that this man is gay regardless of whether or not he decides to be open about it or keep it to himself.

Gay issues really arent a concern to me either at the moment. My #1 right now is with the shitty economy and jobs and maybe healthcare. Every other issue is taking a backseat for me presently.

Ahem, I believe you mean a "rent boy."
________
Marijuana bubbler

I can pretty much assure you that it came as a surprise to lots of people who've known him for a long time.

At least I can't be on the list,
For I'd certainly be missed.:D

Not only that but the angle I am looking at this from goes like this:

On a long enough timeline, things that we do in life as well as choices we make tend to come back and meet at some point. Him being the head of a conservative party and gay weren't going to mix and at some point was going to catch up with him.

So either he was about to be outed or by the fact that he is no longer in such a high ranking position that his outing could hurt him, that he deemed it ok to come out.

Us avergae laypeople may never know! :)

What I believe is probably going to work in his favor are 2 things.

1.) He came out in a good (or as good as it's going to get) climate where homosexuality is a more open subject than it was years ago.

2.) That he didn't do this while he was still the chairperson.

I think with his situation, it may close some doors but due to the climate of the subject and our country's tolerance for at this point, it may open others.

I think it would be fair to say, had anyone done this 40 or 50 years ago, their political career would have gone straight to hell.

And one thing to think on is we can say what we want, but let's remember, Barney Frank came out in 1987 (or was it 86?) and he's still serving now, right?

OK. So again, with today's climate, it's not all that surprising seeing this in the news.

But I'm open to suggestions for the list. ;)

How nice of you to lump homosexuality with all of this deviant behavior. Maybe THIS is why he waited to come out. Maybe he wanted to be able to concentrate on his job without having to assure people in D.C. that he wasn't molesting little boys.

The fact that you even use words like that just shows me that some gay people wait to come out not because they aren't ready to but because you (general) are not ready for it.

and you hit it right on the head.

This is why legislators have such a hard time passing laws for gay marriage and so many people rail against it.

There are still a lot of people who are unaccepting of homosexuality and even go as far as being against any laws that help advance thier cause. Look no further than the decision in California and what kind of uproar it's causing.

Look at Virginia who repealed civil rights law for gays.

PiKA...no matter how you cut it, there are segments of the population that still find homosexuality reprehensible and it riles these people (because they <ex. Fred Phelps> find it a deviant behavior) up more when they find out that officials in any high ranking postion not only supports this but that is part of their backgorund...we both know this, right?

And that same reasoning that you made in the beginning may also have been the reason why Barney frank came out also...it's just one less 'scandal' to deal with.

Not only that, when he had folks like Karl Rove who by some counts, anti-gay, Mehlman coming out would definently have been bad timing.

Question now is, what does Karl Rove have to say now after all this time, that the guy at the 'top' of their food chain was gay...hehehe.

SLOW. CLAP.

I was just making sure you weren't one of those people... you're posts had me thinking otherwise.

No problem dude. We are cool. But you brought some other rereal issues to the floor.

Daemonseid is one of "those people." Hehe.

Who you callin' 'those people'?!?!?

If you read pretty much any article about him, (which I'm guessing you didn't ;) ) you'd note that he apologizes for working against same-sex rights in his past positions and hopes that people will instead see what he is working on now.

You know, afaict that is mostly a British term. But yeah I couldn't think of the right phrase.

I don't really think any of this is a "gay issue." These are issues of equal rights. And it's not like people can't work on/support/vote based on more than one issue at once.

Right. Thanks again. Mostly what I read was recent articles since he came out. I have not read what his thoughts were say, from an article five years ago.

Right. Thanks again. Mostly what I read was recent articles since he came out. I have not read what his thoughts were say, from an article five years ago.

Ok...in digging about...I found this:

Maher isn't correct, hwoever, when he claims Mehlman has never denied the rumor. In the last few months, after repeatedly refusing to answer the question, Mehlman has been denying he's gay with a quip that the rumor's done a number on his dating life. (This harkens back to Al Gore's 2000 campaign manager, Donna Brazile, another closet case, who told the Washington Post, "If I had a personal life, I'd have a sexual orientation.")

I know Ken from law school and have been accused of spiking a story outing him when I was editor the Washington Blade. The charge is ridiculous, and I categorically denied in an editorial at the time. I do not have any personal information about whether Ken is gay. I was very deep in the closet during law school, and if Ken is gay, he was as well.

As I've written before, the sexual orientation of public figures is fair game, even if their private sex life is not. Ken Mehlman is a big boy, and should be able to withstand the scrutiny, especially given how he and his mentor Karl Rove used gay marriage as a wedge issue in 2004 and (much less effectively) this year.

and this
Since he's so confident labeling people based on outward characteristics, Mehlman must understand why his being a 37-year-old "bachelor" who refuses to answer questions about his sexual orientation is a tip-off to many that he's a pathetic closet case, and a pretty vile one at that, having used antigay hatred (aka "moral values") to help elect Bush. Mehlman was actually boasting to the governors about his slick new strategies, telling them that the Bush-Cheney campaign studied voters' consumer habits—basically snooping
into voters' personal lives—in targeting them.

looks like there are going to be a lot of "I told you so's" making the rounds for the next few weeks...based on some of the other stuff that i read along the way, he has given conflicting answers when asked whilst allegedly pushing Rove's agenda, so it looks like it was going to come out sooner or later, as I sated earlier.

What I meant was that he's said in the recent articles that he regrets his past work. ;)

Also, I object to the "out the closeted gays" movement that some groups have taken as a way to showcase the hypocrisy. The sites you cite in your following post pretty much evidence their lack of decorum or integrity by using words like "closet-case."

I'll be amused when anti-same-sex-rights politicians or lobbyists are outed due to driving drunk with their hook up from the gay bar, but not so much by the "examine every detail of his life and call him gay until he admits it" thing.