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The advisor is Richard Grenell, 45, who also served the administration of President George W. Bush, as a spokesman for the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He was also appointed by Ambassador John Danforth in 2004 to serve as an alternative representative of the United States to the U.N. Security Council.

The campaign's announcement on April 19 did not identify Grenell as gay, only that he was joining the campaign to serve as its spokesman on national security and foreign policy issues.

Grenell has served a long line of prominent Republicans in various capacities, including New York Gov. George Pataki, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and San Diego Mayor Susan Golding.

The fact that the Romney campaign announced Grenell's appointment suggests the campaign intends to go after those one in four gay voters who tends to vote Republican.

But one blogger—Doug Wead, a senior advisor to the Ron Paul campaign—noted that the Romney campaign also announced, on that same day, Romney's plan to speak at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. He called the same-day announcements "a clumsy attempt to show respect to both the evangelical and gay communities."

"Instead," wrote Wead on DougWead.com, "it shows that the Romney campaign understands neither one."

However, Grenell may turn out to be a little too abrasive to attract any but the hardcore Republicans in the LGBT community. Just last month, he penned an op-ed piece for the Washington Blade that derided gay Pulitzer Prize winner Jonathan Capehart for defending President Obama's evolving position on same-sex marriage.

MetroWeekly in Washington, D.C. reported that Grenell and his longtime partner live in California. Other media reported Grenell is expected to be working out of Romney headquarters in Boston.

Grenell is a member of Log Cabin Republicans, the national gay Republican group, and spoke about foreign policy issues at its national conference last year.

Jimmy LaSalvia, head of the national gay conservative group GOProud, said he feels sure Grenell "will be an outstanding addition" to Romney's foreign policy and national security team.

"Mitt Romney has a record, throughout his entire career, of assembling top notch teams to execute the tasks at hand," said LaSalvia, "and I think this choice shows that he'll attract the top talent to help him bring America back. And that's good for all Americans—gay or straight."