Ken Mehlman, former head of the Republican National Committee and campaign supervisor for George W. Bush in 2004 has come out of the closet in an interview with The Atlantic.
Anytime someone in the higher-ups of the Republican party is outed it sends a tremor through the media because of the party’s platform positions of being anti gay-marriage and their coalition with the Christian conservative movement which considers homosexuality a correctable sin. Rumors have swirled for sometime about Mehlman’s sexual orientation but he has danced around the subject to the point of denial.
The interesting turn in this whole story about Mehlman is that Bill Maher, a man famously way out on the left end of the dial, openly claimed that he was gay on a taping of Larry King Live which was later edited out by CNN back in ’06. Here is that infamous clip of Bill Maher discussing Mehlman and the anti-gay positioning of the Republican party from 2006.
Bill Maher:Well, I wouldn’t be the first. I’d get sued if I was the first. Ken Mehlman. Ok, there’s one I think people have talked about. I don’t think he’s denied it when he’s been, people have suggested, he doesn’t say…
Larry King:I never heard that. I’m walking around in a fog. I never…Ken Mehlman? I never heard that. But the question is…
Bill Maher: Maybe you don’t go to the same bathhouse I do, Larry.
Mehlman stated in the interview with Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic that:
“It’s taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life,” Mehlman said. “Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I’ve told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they’ve been wonderful and supportive. The process has been something that’s made me a happier and better person. It’s something I wish I had done years ago.”
In that article Ambinder makes the claim that Mehlman is the most powerful Republican in history to identify as gay.
Top Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
