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While battling cancer, Dr. R. Scott Hitt, who died last week, continued with his activism and started a foundation to promote activism in the gay and lesbian community. (Photo courtesy of r.scotthittfoundation)
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dr. R. Scott Hitt, an AIDS specialist and the first openly gay person to head a presidential advisory board died Nov. 8 of colon cancer at his home in West Hollywood. Hitt was chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS during President Clinton’s administration in the 1990s. When Clinton released a set of goals in December 1996 that called for a cure, a vaccine and a guarantee of quality care for AIDS patients, Hitt pressed for more measures to stem the rapid spread of the disease among intravenous drug users. He criticized the Clinton administration for its reluctance to fund needle exchange programs, which he said were proven to prevent the spread of HIV. As the number of AIDS-related deaths declined after the advent of virus-fighting drugs, Hitt focused his activism on gay and lesbian issues. He continued practicing as an AIDS doctor until he was hit by allegations in 2000 that he sexually molested two male patients. Hitt, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, acknowledged touching one patient inappropriately and “crossing a boundary” with another patient. He said he was diagnosed with colon cancer a year earlier and, after undergoing three surgeries and chemotherapy, his judgment was “impaired.” He later gave up his medical license after being arrested for investigation of possessing a controlled substance. Hitt is survived by his companion of 27 years, Alex Koleszar.
LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee announced last week he received the endorsement of conservative anti-gay activist Donald Wildmon, who has frequently led national boycotts against corporations and once accused Mighty Mouse of teaching children to snort cocaine. Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association and a retired United Methodist minister in Tupelo, Miss., announced his support of the former Arkansas governor in a statement released by Huckabee’s campaign. Wildmon, who boycotted lesbian comedian Ellen DeGeneres’ sitcom when she came out, said his endorsement was a personal one and did not represent an official endorsement from the family association.
LITTLE ROCK (AP) — The language of an initiated act intended to ban unmarried couples from adoptions or foster care and declaring married couples the best guardians for Arkansas children has been approved by Attorney General Dustin McDaniel. McDaniel’s certification last week clears the way for the Arkansas Family Council, which submitted the proposal, to begin collecting the more than 61,000 signatures needed to place it on the 2008 ballot. McDaniel had already certified an earlier version by the conservative group but the council submitted a reworded proposal last month. The newest proposal, aimed at banning gays and lesbians from adopting or fostering children, is nearly identical to the earlier version but adds the sentence: “The people of Arkansas find and declare that it is in the best interest of children in need of adoption or foster care to be reared in homes in which adoptive or foster parents are not co-habiting outside of marriage.” If approved by the state’s voters in next year’s general election, the initiated act would effectively reinstate a ban on gay foster parents that Arkansas’ highest court struck down.
WHEELING, Ill. (AP) — A moderate church leader, Rev. Jeffrey Lee, was elected the 12th Bishop of Chicago at the diocese convention last week, defeating seven other candidates, including an openly lesbian priest. If Rev. Tracey Lind, dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, had won, she would have become the second bishop living with a same-sex partner in the Episcopal Church. In written remarks distributed to delegates before the vote, Lee said he wanted to keep a conversation going with conservatives on the issue of gay clergy. But he also said he has stood for “the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the church.”
TAMPA, Fla. — When Floridians go to the polls next year to elect the next president, they will probably also vote on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages, according to a report by WTSP – Tampa Bay’s 10 News, a CBS affiliate in Florida. The organization Florida4Marriage, which is pushing the amendment, said it needs just 13,000 more signatures to get the issue on the ballot. With almost ...
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