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It’s old news to some, but I just found this out today. Karl Rove’s adoptive father was gay.

Even after resigning from the White House in 2007, his name hits the news. Most recently, a quote regarding Scott McClellan’s new memoir “What Happened“

“Two things. First of all this doesn’t sound like Scott, it really doesn’t, not the Scott McClellan I known for a long time. Second of all, it sounds like somebody else, it sounds like a left wing blogger.”

When he talks people listen…even if they don’t agree. Often described as “Bush’s Brain”, his presence is still felt in conservative politics.

Rove is an informal adviser to Republican Presidential candidate John McCain and has donated $2,300 to his campaign (Politico).

So with today’s revelation my first thought is this:

How could he, with a gay father, be the mastermind behind the idea to use gay issues to motivate GOP voters? Second thought: OK, what’s the story between son and father?

From Huffington Post:

Louis Rove had been a prolific smoker and died of lung diseases but he had loved his son and was very proud of his achievements. Although he was not Karl’s biological father, Louis was the only father he had ever known because Karl’s mother Reba had divorced very early in her son’s life. In an interview…Rove emphasized that he did not consider Louis his stepfather. “I don’t call him Louis,” he explained. “He’s my father, my adopted father.”

Nonetheless, Rove was decidedly circumspect when we asked him questions about his family. Louis and Reba Rove’s marriage fell apart in 1969 during Karl’s senior year of high school in Utah. Rove told us it was somewhat of a mystery but his father came home Christmas Eve and then returned to Los Angeles where he had taken a job as a geologist with Getty Oil. The family was supposed to move to LA with Louis at the end of the year. “But for whatever reason, that didn’t happen,” Rove told us. “My mother, who was very good at explaining things without explaining them, said it was not going to happen.”

Karl seems to have inherited this particular talent from his mother. What he told us was fundamentally true; what he didn’t tell us was the most important part of the story. Louis Rove had informed his wife that he was gay and that he was coming out of the closet and wanted a divorce. After he retired from his job in LA, Louis Rove moved to Palm Springs and befriended other retired gay men. He drank and socialized at the Rainbow Cactus and the Martini Burger and became part of a group of gay men who referred to themselves as “The Old Farts Club.” According to his close friend of many years, retired insurance executive Joseph Koons, Louis Rove was one of the best people he knew and that both Louis and his son Karl were comfortable with the father’s sexual orientation. Although Karl lovingly accepted his father as a gay man and treated Louis’ gay associates with respect, Louis Rove’s death was a private matter. His friends knew nothing of a memorial service and no death notice was published in the Palm Springs newspaper.

That excerpt leaves a psychologically gray area for me, but it seemed that his father was proud of him, and he loved his father. Why work so hard for the demise of homosexuals?

Religion? Could he be a fundamentalist?

From Wikipedia:

Karl Rove: Religious beliefs: Episcopalian, and this:

When discussing his new book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens was asked by New York Magazine if “anyone in the Bush administration confided in [him] about being an atheist?”, he replied, “Well, I don’t talk that much to them — maybe people think I do. I know something which is known to few but is not a secret. Karl Rove is not a believer, and he doesn’t shout it from the rooftops, but when asked, he answers quite honestly. I think the way he puts it is, “I’m not fortunate enough to be a person of faith.”

Then it hit me. I shouldn’t be surprised that an agnostic/atheist Republican having a good relationship with a gay family member can still be such a staunch voice for the conservative, anti-gay political party. I’m not sure what church Dick Cheney goes to, but we all know about his gay daughter.

What does that say about these individuals?

Here’s my opinion drawn only from my convictions:

I follow my heart. It dictates how I treat others and guides me towards the issues I hold dear. I stumble in this feat, but I try my best. I could have married for money or chosen a job for power, but I’m an artist and the wife of a nurse. I’m honest to a fault and sleep well at night. I’m not sure what comes after this life, but I’ve tried my best to follow that moral compass deep within. Sadly and fearfully, I believe those two men have done none of the above.