President Bush has named New York real estate developer and gay Republican activist Donald Capoccia as a member of the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts, which approves the design and location of memorials and monuments in the nation’s capital, the Washington Blade reported. Scott Evertz, director of the White House National AIDS Policy Office, is the only other openly gay Bush appointee. However, Capoccia’s post is a voluntary advisory position.
Massachusetts Department of Education worker Margot Abels, who was fired for describing sexual techniques to teens during an AIDS workshop, has won her job back, with back pay, reports the Boston Globe. The arbitrator ruled that the department was wrong to fire after a tape of a sex education workshop she led last year became public, the paper said.
The beating and arson that resulted in the death of Marcell Eads, 58, began with him making advances to two men now charged with murdering him, witnesses testified last week in Kansas, reports the Wichita Eagle. At a preliminary hearing, co-defendants Zachary Steward, 18, and Brandon Boone, 17, blamed each other for taking the lead role in repeatedly striking Eads on his head. They also accused each other of setting the fire that killed Eads, and both took credit for trying to put out the fire, the paper reported. A judge ruled there was enough evidence to charge the two with first-degree murder, aggravated arson, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery. Hairstylist Eads was openly gay, said a friend and neighbor, Zusan Livingston. She said Eads told her he was having an affair with Steward, the Eagle said. Police said Steward gave a statement in which he said that Eads had made advances toward him and Boone.
School officials in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., have dropped an 11-year-old policy that banned religious and gay student clubs on high school campuses, reports AP. Capistrano Unified School District Superintendent James Fleming said officials feared lawsuits and they didn’t want to deprive students of opportunities that could help them get into college.