Karl Rove's Stepfather Was Gay

A new book about President George W. Bush's right-hand man Karl Rove hit store shelves Tuesday, claiming that the stepfather of the political strategist was gay.

In "The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power," James Moore and Wayne Slater dedicate two chapters to the touchier side of the Republican Party's exploitation of antigay sentiment.

In Chapter 9, "A Few Simple Questions: What's in Karl's Closet?" the authors draw on interviews with gay acquaintances of Rove's stepfather, Louis Rove, as well as an interview with a circumspect Karl Rove, to reveal that Louis came out as gay after divorcing Rove's mother.

Louis Rove died just as Karl Rove was in the midst of launching the anti-gay issues campaign that was part of President Bush's re-election platform, the book's authors say.

"Many people on the extremist side of the right wing -- Phyllis Schlafly and her gay son, (State Sen.) Pete Knight and his gay son, Alan (Keyes) and his gay daughter -- this seems to be a pattern in extremist politics where you have people bashing the rights of gay people, and yet in their own families, we're there," said Thom Lynch, executive director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center in San Francisco.