Ken Mehlman, the former RNC chair who
came out gay Wednesday, is in talks with gay GOP group GOProud, gay
weekly the Washington Blade reported.
The Blade is reporting that the
group's executive director, Jimmy LaSalvia, recently spoke with
Mehlman, but LaSalvia declined to comment on what role – if any –
Mehlman would take.
“We've talked to him,” LaSalvia
said. “He's certainly engaging with the community as evidenced
from the fundraiser that he's doing for the Ted Olson case.”
LaSalvia was referring to Mehlman's
involvement in a fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal
Rights (AFER), the group created specifically to support a
challenge to California's gay marriage ban, Proposition 8.
Mehlman's coming out has been met with
jeers from several
prominent gay leaders who have charged that the 43-year-old political
strategist should have spoken out sooner against anti-gay GOP
strategies that kept the party in power.
Mehlman, who for years denied rumors
he's gay, said he “regrets” that he was unable to argue against
the policies because he wasn't comfortable with his sexual
orientation at the time.