By Katherine Dean

Ever since last week’s revelation in the Atlantic that former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman is gay, pundits have been speculating as to how his announcement will affect the GOP’s stance on gay marriage.

Last Friday, the Washington Post reported that same-sex marriage is gaining support within the party, especially among young people. While the Huffington Post reports earlier this week that a $5,000 per-head gay marriage fundraiser co-hosted by Mehlman and to be attended by several of the Republican Party’s most influential and deep-pocketed players “provides one of the sharpest illustrations of how gay rights is becoming a cause among more elite, establishment members of the GOP.”

Along with dozens of other media reports, these accounts reveal that attitudes toward same-sex marriage within the Republican Party may be cooling. As Steve Schmidt, former campaign manager for John McCain, told the Huffington Post, “I think there is a growing mass of people in Republican politics who are fundamentally sick and tired about being lectured to about morality and how to live your life by a bunch of people who have been married three or four times and are more likely to be seen outside a brothel on a Thursday night than being at home with their kids... There is a fundamental indecency to the vitriol and the hatred directed against decent people because of their sexuality. People have reached a critical mass with this.”

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