OT: Gay? Top anti-gay Bush spokesperson Ken Mehlman, gay himself?

[John Manning]

Bush-Cheney campaign 'pressured papers' to kill story suggesting Bush
chair was gay

By John Byrne | RAW STORY Editor
Raw Story, 11/11/2004
http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=412

Two New York newspapers received calls from the Bush-Cheney campaign
during the Republican National Convention urging them not to run a story
suggesting that the campaign manager and public face of the campaign was
gay, RAW STORY has learned.

Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman, who is now in the running to
be chairman of the Republican Party, has repeatedly refused to answer
questions about his sexuality in both public and private settings.

Steve Schmidt, deputy communications director for the Bush-Cheney
campaign, also refused to deny that Mehlman was gay on the record in a
telephone call with the activist weblog, blogACTIVE, which has been
outing homophobic public officials, including California Rep. David
Dreier (R-CA) and former Rep. Ed Schrock (R-Va.). Schmidt did not return
to a call seeking comment today.

RAW STORY was party to an investigation of claims Mehlman was gay in the
run-up to the election but no one was willing to go on the record.

Two of the sources told blogACTIVE, that they had been pressured by the
Republican Party to remain silent. The site adds that two New York City
newspapers "were called by press folks at the Bush campaign attempting
to kill the Mehlman story." So as to protect the reporters involved,
this site cannot post the papers' names online.

Mehlman, 37, who is single, spearheaded the Bush re-election campaign.
The campaign used aggressively anti-gay tactics, including the mailing
of a flyer in some states which suggested liberals would allow gay
marriage and ban bibles. Many analysts believe Bush’s support for
anti-gay marriage measures carried him to victory.

The Washington Blade asked Mehlman about openly gay staff in an
interview in May.

"I'm not going to comment or provide information on the private
activities of campaign staff," he said, when asked if there were out
gays among the president's campaign advisers. "The president is leading
based on principle. His principles are reflective of his values and his
values are compassionate and conservative."

RAW STORY revealed last month that both the Chief Financial Officer and
the number two political adviser to the Republican National Committee
are openly gay.

Neither would answer questions relating to the party's policies, which
many see as homophobic.

Asked about his sexuality Wednesday, Mehlman hung up the phone.

The 2004 Republican Party platform, approved in August, denounces
prejudice and trumpets equality.

It begins, "Ronald Reagan believed that people were basically good, and
had the right to be free. He believed that bigotry and prejudice were
the worst thing a person could be guilty of."

The platform includes a bolded section titled, "Ensuring Equal
Opportunities." The section leads with the sentence, "Our nation is a
land of opportunity for all, and our communities must represent the idea
of equality for every citizen."

Such equality and freedom from prejudice, apparently, doesn't apply to
gay Americans.

"We believe that neither federal nor state judges nor bureaucrats should
force states to recognize other living arrangements as equivalent to
marriage."

"After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence, and millenia
of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to
change the most fundamental institution of civilization, the union of a
man and a woman in marriage."