Ken Mehlman

This is our second day addressing the fact that Ken Mehlman, Former Republican National Committee Chair and Chief of the Bush Campaign came out.

The response from the LGBT community has been mixed at best.  I’ve read dozens of articles online, and the comments on those articles run anything from comparing Mehlman’s coming out now to a Nazi coming out after the Holocaust, to LGBT people reminding Mehlman that gays and lesbians paid a price for his cowardice.  People wrote numerous comments saying that they were personally affected by the laws he helped pass—laws which crushed equal rights for gays and lesbians in 21 states.  They were effected personally, not hypothetically, because they themselves lived in one of the states where the Republicans used the gay marriage issue as a wedge issue to drive conservatives to the polls.

A-List Gays Embrace Ken Mehlman:

What surprised me, in a way, was hearing some members of the LGBT community stand in such support for Ken Mehlman; even going so far as to applaud his coming out.

Mehlman is participating in a September fundraiser for the AFER, the American Foundation for Equal Rights who we always blog about.  You know them as the group that brought us Olson and Boies and supported the legal challenge to being down Prop 8.  Many speculate that Mehlman’s coming out was timed to end speculation about how Mehlman—of all people—could participate in an AFER fundraiser.  Who knows.  What I do know is that Chad Griffin, the political strategist who organized opposition to Proposition 8, is Mehlman’s champion.  He said, that, “when we achieve equal equality, he [Mehlman] will be one of the people to thank for it.”  Sure he says that.  Mehlman is helping them fundraise.  It’s going to take one hell of a lot of money to push our Prop 8 smash through the US Supreme Court if need be.

Another supporter of Mehlman’s is Dustin Lance Black.  You know him; he’s the blonde cutie who won the Oscar for writing Milk, the Harvey Milk movie.  Dustin Lance said, “Ken (Mehlman) represents an incredible coup for the American Foundation for Equal Rights. We believe that our mission of equal rights under the law is one that should resonate with every American. As a victorious former presidential campaign manager and head of the Republican Party, Ken has the proven experience and expertise to help us communicate with people across each of the 50 states.”

Again, I’m sure he said that because Mehlman is helping AFER fundraise.  And for that, I truly am grateful.  We could use it.  I just wish Mehlman would step up and make it right with our community by doing more than just fundraising.  We’ve ALL done shitty things in the past—I’m no exception, believe me—and we all know that when we do, we’ve got to make up for our bad behavior.  Let’s hope Mehlman does just that.

Welcome to the world where you are not first in line because you are a white man who is entitled to do whatever you want to do.  Perhaps you can learn some compassion for people who aren’t born with white skin, a penis or who are heterosexual.

Your ilk has been and continues to be the class of oppressors who have sat back while women have been treated as property, while black men have been lynched because they have looked at your property, while homosexuals have been ridiculed as less than, while American citizens of Japanese ancestry were rounded up and put in concentration camps, while Jews were stripped of their property, possessions and dignity, rounded up and exterminated, while gay men with HIV were stigmatized and cast out.

This makes my blood boil perhaps most of all: the hurt you helped foment and institutionalize across the county has resulted in the vote on Prop 8 in California, anti-same sex marriage constitutional amendments across the country, broken families, teenage suicides and ruined lives all so you can own a multi-million dollar condo in Chelsea.

Ken Mehlman – His Response:

Unfortunately, Mehlman‘s responsorial words thus far have been inadequate.  When asked about what he’ll do now, he says, “What I will try to do is to persuade people, when I have conversations with them, that it is consistent with our party’s philosophy, whether it’s the principle of individual freedom, or limited government, or encouraging adults who love each other and who want to make a lifelong commitment to each other to get married.”

I’m sorry…you’re going to TRY?  I’m afraid that’s just not good enough, Ken; it’s just not good enough.  Its great that Chad Griffin and Lance Dustin Black have embraced you but you have a long road to hoe.  Mr. Mehlman, you are reviled by the LGBT community and you must do penance.