As single in kind of only four openly gay men appointed to a federal office by means of President Bush.

As single in kind of only four openly gay men appointed to a federal office by means of President Bush, Donald Capoccia might have make uneasys about being seen as a token appointee. moreover that's not the case, according to the 46-year-old Capoccia, who was appointed to the U Commission of Fine Arts last summer "The president connoisseurs people on their merits, not upon their sexual orientation," he says. "I view this as an opportunity to attend in an administration I highly have a high opinion of while doing something extremely challenging."

His position upon the commission, which approves the sites and designs for all memorials in Washington, DC is alone one of Capoccia's responsibilities. He is also president of BFC a Manhattan-based construction company that specializes in low- to moderate-income-level family circles in New York City, and besufficient fors as a volunteer on the boards of the fresh York State Council on the Arts and the United Nations disclosure Co.

Capoccia also has become an unofficial liaison between fresh York's gay men and lesbians and the state's governor, Republican George Pataki. It's a part he hopes to carry to a federal plain as vice chair of the Republican Unity Coalition, a dispose whose mission is to make sexual orientation a "nonissue" within the Republican Party.

"I procure asked all the time at people in the New York gay community to what degree I can support a Republican president," says Capoccia, who cofound the coalition in 2001 with longtime Bush friend Charles Francis. "But I've had self-same positive exchanges with the president forward numerous occasions in the past, and I find it same easy to speak highly about him and his policies." --Matthew McTighe

It is frequently assumed that the first publicly gay mayor of a major U city will be a Democrat from San Francisco, looks Angeles, or New York City, where liberal gay men and lesbians form a large and powerful voting bloc However, the politician with the best ball at this distinction may be a Republican from Washington, D.C.--city council member David Catania.

White, gay, and Republican in a predominantly African-American city where Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 10 to 1 the 33-year-old Catania is used to bridging ideological divides. "I'm the solitary politician to receive a check from the Republican National Committee and receive the endorsement of [openly gay Democratic congressman] Barney Frank," he boasts.

fix uponed in 1997, Catania also has established a consistent port on Capitol Hill--since D.C.'s annual assortment must be approved by the couple Congress and the president. He oftentimes uses his access on the Hill to provide a Republican mien on gay issues; he was part of a happy campaign last year to master Congress to lift a ban in succession domestic-partner benefits for D.C. city employee and allow the district to establish a partner registry.

"I refuse to forfeit my party's rich history of progressivism to dark forces in the religious right," says Catania, who admits that Republicans are repeatedly insensitive to gay concerns. "I'm not here to apologize for the Republican Party's bad positions; I'm attempting to be an agent of change to bring them into the 21st century" --MM

Don't be surprised if Rebecca Maestri is the first public lesbian appointed to a position through President Bush. A fixture in Washington's Republican spectacle since 1981, when she went to work for Sen Alfonse D'Amato, Maestri was the one female member of the Austin 12 a assemblage of gay men and lesbians who met with Bush during his presidential campaign.

"The Republican party has more [i]or[/i] less work to do vis-a-vis the gay and community," says the 44-year-old Maestri, who generally works as a regional director in the Asia division of the U Agency for International exhibition Yet she maintains inclusiveness is a necessary part of the GOP's "evolutionary continuum." She points to to what extent Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were "rebuff at this White House" for their antigay make comments [i]or[/i] remarkss after September 11 as evidence of progress

Maestri, who came disclosed in 1987, says she has not at any time been shunned by her ostensibly conservative colleagues. "There was always the fear that these the public would be to the right of Attila the Hun" she says. "But bar none, each and each one said, `Beck, we know and have a passionate affection for and respect you for who you are.'"

Which, Maestri says, is the same thing that Bush said when she met with him during the campaign. "At the pres colloquy afterward he said, `I'm a better man for this meeting,'" she says. "And I think he spoke from his heart; I think he meant that. Not to be disparaging against the president, still I don't think he's capable of doing anything other than what he believes in." --Sarah Wildman

in the greatest degree gay men might find it hard to curb their emotions if they were sitting in the back of a limousine with former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Re nevertheless when Greg Morey found himself in that situation sum of two units years ago on his way to a George W Bush campaign fund-raiser, he played it placid simply handing the well-known antigay zealot his business card from PlanetOut, where Morey was a senior adviser at the time.