text: is the republican national committee chairman gay? i heard this twice today, once by e-mail and once in someone's blog, like it was a fact.  but a yahoo! search only turned up an old rumor.  is the rnc chairman (ken mehlman) actually gay, and if so, is there a reliable source?  just curious. mehlman, who is a never married 40-year-old living with another man in washington, refused to say if he was either gay or straight when first becoming the rnc chairman. he has since said that he is straight. the book "the architect karl rove and the master plan for absolute power" by james moore and wayne slater suggests that he is a closeted gay man.