
CONTACTAbout UsCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2025 Equal Entertainment LLC.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
We need your help
Your support makes The Advocate's original LGBTQ+ reporting possible. Become a member today to help us continue this work.
Your support makes The Advocate's original LGBTQ+ reporting possible. Become a member today to help us continue this work.
Ken Mehlman, President Bush's 2004 campaign manager and the former
Republican
National Committee chairman, has come out in an interview
with The Atlantic.
Blogger Mike Rogers, who has outed gay politicians who have taken antigay stands, announced Wednesday that Marc Ambinder would interview Mehlman, who was in the forefront of George W. Bush's 2004 reelection campaign, which was accompanied by a spate of state ballot initiatives to constitutionally ban marriage equality.
"It's taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life," Mehlman told Ambinder. "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."
Several Republicans and other Bush aides have denied Mehlman is gay, as has Mehlman himself. He once told the New York Daily News, "I'm not gay, but those stories did a number on my dating life for six months."
Mehlman said he wanted to come out publicly because "he wants to become an advocate for gay marriage." He said he anticipated questions would be asked about his participation in a late-September fund-raiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the group that supported the legal challenge to California's ballot initiative against marriage equality, Proposition 8. Mehlman is cochairing the event with Republican donors Peter Thiel and Paul Singer.
Mehlman served as White House political director in the Bush administration and, with the help of Bush aide Karl Rove, managed Bush's reelection campaign. The American Association of Political Consultants named him the Campaign Manager of the Year in 2005.
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
Watch Now: Pride Today
Latest Stories
Gavin Newsom agrees with anti-trans talking points on yet another MAGA podcast
July 18 2025 3:14 PM
Trump administration kills $18.5 million in funding for diversity, LGBTQ+ support
July 18 2025 1:53 PM
Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, but what is it?
July 18 2025 11:26 AM
Florida city removes rainbow crosswalk, following Sean Duffy's anti-Pride directive
July 18 2025 5:04 PM
PBS and NPR stations at risk as federal funding is slashed
July 18 2025 1:26 PM
Netflix revives 1998 cold case of a missing lesbian cruise ship passenger
July 18 2025 11:38 AM
As Trump faces escalating Epstein scandal, Marjorie Taylor Green targets drag queens
July 18 2025 10:35 AM
Trump sues Murdoch, News Corp, and WSJ over Epstein story
July 18 2025 5:34 PM
House Oversight Democrats demand records over RFK Jr.’s HIV program cuts
July 18 2025 3:56 PM
Barack Obama explains why he thinks all men need queer people in their lives
July 18 2025 1:01 PM