Bush Appoints First Openly Gay Man

W A S H I N G T O N, April 9 -- Naming the first openly gay person to serve in the Bush administration, the White House announced today that Scott Evertz will take the helm of the Office of National AIDS Policy, an office the president was rumored to be closing only weeks ago.

Evertz,who now works as vice president of the Lutheran Manor Foundation in Milwaukee, is a longtime volunteer in the AIDS community in Wisconsin, most recently at Common Ground, a faith-based organization in Milwaukee that offers housing programs for people with HIV/AIDS.

He also has played a key role in raising money for a faith-based mission hospital in Kenya and worked with the former governor of Wisconsin and current secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, on state legislation that guaranteed hospital visitation rights for gay and lesbian partners.

Last year, Evertz was included in then-Texas Gov. Bush's meeting with a select group of gay Republicans in Austin. In July, he was instrumental in working with Thompson on the GOP platform language on national AIDS policy.

Social Conservatives Call Nomination ‘Troubling’

Yet while the nomination is hailed as historic by the leading gay GOP group, the Log Cabin Republicans, of which Evertz is a member, it has raised the eyebrows and the ire of some leading social conservatives.

"We will be monitoring this regularly to make sure that this is not a bully pulpit for the advocacy of homosexuality," said the Traditional Values Coalition's Rev. Lou Sheldon, noting that Evertz's itinerary and public papers will be public record. "We are going to be right there."

The Family Research Council called the nomination "troubling and regrettable" and argues it is "inconsistent with values that the president maintains he stands for." The FRC's Richard Lessner vows the group will let its grass-roots supporters know its view on the Evertz nod.

At today's press briefing, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer refused to comment on the nominee's sexual orientation or the message it sends to the either the gay or the religious conservative communities.