Gay Activists to Mehlman: Not So Fast

[marmar]

from Mother Jones:




Gay Activists to Mehlman: Not So Fast

— By Stephanie Mencimer
| Thu Aug. 26, 2010 9:13 AM PDT


Well, big surprise. Ken Mehlman is gay. And now the former Republican Party chairman says he yearns to be a gay-marriage advocate. But Mehlman, who headed George Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, is a little late to the wedding party, and he's getting a frosty reception in some quarters of the gay rights world--for good reason.

Mehlman was outed years ago not just by gay activists appalled by his party's electoral strategy, which included vicious attacks on gays and lesbians, but by other gay Republicans. During the 2004 presidential campaign, the Bush reelection effort and the GOP used anti-gay marriage initiatives in key states, such as Ohio, to enhance their electoral prospects. The party continued to whip up anti-gay sentiment after Melhman assumed the helm of the Republican National Committee. Meanwhile, rumors about his sexuality persisted. (After a 2005 Republican Party dinner in Ohio attended by Mehlman, one local gay Republican attendee told the Gay People's Chronicle that while Mehlman didn't quite admit publicly that he was gay in response to questions about his sexual orientation, "as long as he’s sleeping with men behind the scenes, that’s all I care about.”) Mehlman's hypocrisy is legendary on this front.

Mehlman is hardly the first big-league Republican to come out of the closet. Last year, longtime GOP political consultant Arthur Finkelstein, a highly secretive down-and-dirty political operative who helped orchestrate the rise of notorious gay basher, North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, shocked the politerati by marrying his partner of 40 years in a civil ceremony in Massachusetts. (Prior to that, there had been merely unconfirmed rumors about Finkelstein's orientation.) Fred Karger, a long-closeted California political consultant who helped devise the Willie Horton campaign against Michael Dukakis during the 1988 presidential campaign, came out a few years ago, and he has become a prominent gay rights advocate, as we explained in this article earlier this year. But unlike Mehlman, Karger never worked for the extreme social conservatives of his party or promoted gay-bashing electoral strategies.

Given Mehlman's particular record, many gay activists believe he has lots of apologizing to do, and not all of them are ready to link arms with the guy. In a post headlined, "Repulsive Anti-Gay Quisling Homophobic Scumbag Asshat Closeted Former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman Has Come Out," gay blogger Joe.My.God writes, "Mehlman's crimes against his own people are motherfucking LEGION....We can be sure that GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans (organizations of Republicans who support gay rights) are positively drooling over the prospect of welcoming Mehlman onto their boards of directors. VOMIT." ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/08/rnc-chair-mehlman-gay-comes-out

[JerseygirlCT]

1. I was just going to ask if anyone was surprised at this news.

Sure didn't surprise me.

[DURHAM D]

2. Top on my list for despicable is still Terry Dolan.

"John Terrence "Terry" Dolan (1950 – December 28, 1986) was co-founder and chairman of the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NC PAC).<1>

An outspoken critic of gay rights, he was discovered to have been a closeted homosexual<2><3><4> who frequented gay bars in Washington, D.C.<5> He died from complications of AIDS, aged 36.<6>

Dolan was co-founder and chairman of the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NC PAC).<1> He co-authored Reagan: A President Succeeds with Gregory Fossedal. His brother, Anthony R. Dolan, was also a political activist and Ronald Reagan's chief presidential speechwriter.<7>

He was a member of the advisory board for the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's CAUSA International..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Dolan_(activist)


One time went I went to see the Aids Quilt I spotted his name. I had a total melt down. No one with me knew who he was and I gave them more than an ear full. He died in the closet and had worked hard to help Reagan to remain in denial about the epidemic and suppress research and funding for AIDS research during the Reagan administration. He should not have been honored with a quilt panel.

[marmar]

3. Sounds like a Roy Cohn-esque figure.....

nt

[jonnyblitz]

5. He is though its hard to top the vileness of Roy Cohn This

Dolan character is/was notorious amongst those of us who have been following this sort of thing for awhile.

[QC]

4. I hope he is tormented for the rest of his life by the same bigots he agitated and empowered. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

6. "Repulsive Anti-Gay Quisling Homophobic Scumbag Asshat Closeted Former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman Has

Come Out,"


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

THAT is some really great righteous indignation!!!!

[ibegurpard]

7. Please, Ken, go back in

[BrklynLiberal]

8. LOLOL! THAT would have been the BEST reaction...