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D.C. police arrested the former legislative assistant to a Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates on Nov. 22 for allegedly assaulting one of two gay men who were walking together to a victory rally near the White House on election night.
Police charged Bryan F. Fumagalli, 28, with two counts of misdemeanor assault. They classified the incident as an anti-gay bias related crime.
A police statement said Fumagalli allegedly grabbed a rainbow flag, an internationally recognized gay rights symbol, from one of the two men and assaulted him. Part of the assault was captured on video by a Channel 7 News camera operator, who was standing nearby when the assault occurred outside the Capital Hilton Hotel.
At the time of the incident, Channel 7 reported the attacker appeared to have been leaving a Republican National Committee election night gathering at the Capital Hilton when he crossed paths with the two men, Zack Pesavento and Steve Kensinger.
A staff directory for the Virginia Legislature shows that Fumagalli worked as a legislative assistant to Del. Jackson H. Miller (R-Prince Williams County).
Fumagalli also worked as an intern in the spring of 2007 for the Leadership Institute, an Arlington-based conservative advocacy organization that recruits and trains conservative activists for leadership roles in public policy jobs, according to a spokesperson for the group.
Acting Lt. Brett Parson, who oversees the police’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit, said officers questioned Fumagalli at the time of the assault but determined they could not make an arrest without obtaining a warrant.
Parson said police investigators followed up on the case and that Fumagalli turned himself in at the Second District police station Nov. 22 after police informed him they had obtained a warrant for his arrest.
Fumagalli posted a photo of himself standing in front of an American flag in a page he published on Facebook. He says on his Facebook page that GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Republican former Lt. Gov. Michael Steele of Maryland are among the politicians he most admires.
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
A search of donation records revealed two more prominent local contributors to the “Yes on 8” campaign that succeeded in banning same-sex marriage in California.
Terry Largent, the wife of Steve Largent, a former congressman and Seattle Seahawks football player, contributed $2,000 to support the ballot measure.
Steve Largent was a Republican congressman from Oklahoma’s 1st district from 1994 to 2002. He now is president and chief executive officer of CTIA, an international nonprofit organization for the wireless communications industry. The organization is based in D.C.
During his time in Congress, Largent introduced an amendment to the D.C. Appropriations Act that would have, if passed, stopped the city from using federal dollars to promote adoptions by couples not related by blood or marriage.
Also backing Proposition 8 was Clearword Communications Group, a company in Bristow, Va., that provides direct mail fundraising programs. Clearword, as a company, donated $4,300 to the measure.
Clearword lists among its previous clients the Jesse Helms Center and the conservative American Civil Rights Union. The company previously donated to the Alliance for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage.
But the most prominent local donor to Prop 8 appears to be Sid Foulger, a Mormon who founded the Foulger-Pratt property development, management and construction company. He donated $50,000 to “Yes on 8.”
Foulger, who established Foulger-Pratt in 1963, is chair of the company’s board.
REBECCA ARMENDARIZ
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