Congresswoman Kay Granger

Change.org has a piece up about how despite his pledge to support gay rights, former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman — who came out of the glass closet on Wednesday — has continued to give money to decidedly anti-gay politicians.
One of those anti-gay politicians is Mehlman’s one-time boss, Republican Texas Congresswoman Kay Granger. According to OpenSecrets.org, Mehlman gave $2,400 to Granger in December 2009.
Mehlman served as Granger’s chief of staff in the late 1990s. That’s where Mehlman met Karl Rove, who worked as a campaign consultant for Granger. Of course Mehlman and Rove would both later go on to work for President George W. Bush. (Remarkably, despite all these Texas ties, the state’s major newspapers said very little about Mehlman’s coming out in today’s editions.)
Granger, whose district covers the western half of Tarrant County as well as Wise and Parker counties, has consistently received a zero on LGBT issues in the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard. Most recently, Granger voted against DADT repeal this year and against LGBT-inclusive hate crimes legislation in 2009. Here’s a snippet of Granger’s prior voting record on gay rights from OnTheIssues.org:

• Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation. (November 2007)

• Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman. (July 2006)

• Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage. (September 2004)

• Voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC. (July 1999)

It’s great that Mehlman has agreed to host a September fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the group that’s fighting Prop 8 in court. But it’s difficult to even begin to forgive him for all harm he’s inflicted on the LGBT community when he’s continuing to help inflict it by supporting our enemies.