Obama names 7 gays to transition team Gay groups considering Inaugural events
By LOU CHIBBARO JR, Washington Blade | Nov 19, 8:48 AMhttp://www.washingtonblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=22518 Officials with President-elect Barack Obama's transition team this week named at least seven openly gay people to transition panels assigned to review federal departments and agencies.
Three of the seven gays named to the transition panels — businessman Fred P. Hochberg, former San Francisco Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg, and labor attorney Elaine Kaplan — held high-level positions in the Clinton administration.
The Obama officials also named President Bush's former ambassador to Romania, Michael Guest, to a transition panel assigned to review issues pertaining to the State Department. Guest became the nation's second openly gay ambassador when Bush appointed him to the Romania post for a term lasting from 2001 to 2003.
Several national gay rights advocacy groups, meanwhile, were said to be considering whether to hold one or more gay-related events during the week of Obama's Inauguration on Jan. 20.
