Dr. Blackwell's BLOG

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Ken Mehlman, Former Republican Party Chair, Reveals He is Gay

Filed under: GLBT Social Issues and Civil Rights,Politics — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 01:10

Ken_mehlman In an ironic twist of fate, the former leader of the notoriously anti-gay Republican Party, Ken Mehlman, revealed today, he is a gay man. Mehlman was the steward of the GOP under former-President George W. Bush and spearheaded the Republican leadership while Bush pushed to pass a Federal Amendment to the US Constitution which would’ve banned legal recognition for  same-sex couples. Although the Democrats effectively stopped Bush from ever passing the Amendment, Mehlman denied any suggestion he was homosexual. At the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner, Mehlman was quoted as saying, “I’m not gay. But those stories did a number on my dating life for six months.”

By coming out, Mehlman has decided he is going to change his life and is actually working hard to reverse the damage he and his fellow Republicans inflicted on gay and lesbian Americans. He said that he “really wished” he had come to terms with his sexual orientation earlier, “so I could have worked against [the Federal Marriage Amendment]” and “reached out to the gay community.” As Kurby Dick indicated in his fantastic documentary Outrage, about gay politicians who try to hide their sexuality by voting against equality for gay men and lesbians, like most out former anti-gay policymakers, Mehlman has vowed to make his wrongs right.

He will be Co-Chairing a major fundraiser in late September that has already raised over $1 million for the organization battling Prop 8. The fundraiser is co-chaired by prominent Republican donors Paul Singer and Peter Thiel and will be held at Singer’s home. So while Mehlman no doubtfully harmed gay men and lesbians as the leader of the Republican Party, I do give him credit for admitting his sexuality and joining the fight to bring equality to every American.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Powered by WordPress