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The
White
House
and
the
gay
GOP
group
Log
Cabin
Republicans
have
so
far
remained
mum
on
a
report
by
the
New
York
Daily
News
that
President
Bush
has
named
a
gay
man
to
become
an
assistant
secretary
of
commerce
and
head
of
an
international
trade
office.
In
a
June
24
column,
Daily
News
columnists
George
Rush
and
Joanna
Molloy
reported
that
Israel
“Izzy”
Hernandez,
35,
a
White
House
adviser
and
personal
aide
to
Bush
during
his
term
as
Texas
governor,
came
out
to
the
president
last
year.
“One
source
tells
us
Hernandez
waited
until
Bush
was
sworn
in
for
a
second
term
to
formally
tell
him
he
is
gay,”
the
columnists
reported.
“By
then,
says
a
source,
he’d
brought
his
partner
to
several
official
events.”
A
White
House
spokesperson
did
not
return
calls
seeking
comment
on
the
Hernandez
appointment.
During
his
first
term
as
president,
Bush
appointed
two
openly
gay
men
to
head
the
White
House
AIDS
office
and
named
a
gay
foreign
service
officer
as
U.S.
ambassador
to
Romania.
The
president
also
appointed
several
gay
members
to
the
Presidential
Advisory
Council
on
HIV/AIDS
and
named
a
New
York
gay
Republican
activist
and
businessman
to
the
National
Commission
on
Fine
Arts.
The
gay
appointments
stopped
as
the
2004
presidential
election
approached,
and
Bush’s
chief
White
House
political
adviser,
Karl
Rove,
helped
orchestrate
Bush’s
support
for
a
constitutional
ban
on
gay
marriage
as
part
of
a
strategy
to
woo
evangelical
Christian
voters.
If
the
Daily
News
report
is
true,
Hernandez,
a
Texas
native,
becomes
the
first
known
gay
appointee
to
a
major
post
in
the
Bush
administration
since
the
election.
He
also
becomes
the
administration’s
first
known
gay
Latino
appointee.
Prior
to
being
nominated
for
the
assistant
secretary’s
post,
Hernandez
worked
from
2001
to
May
2005
in
the
White
House
as
an
assistant
to
Rove
as
well
as
a
deputy
assistant
to
the
president.
Hernandez
is
the
second
Rove
deputy
whose
sexual
orientation
has
become
the
subject
of
interest
in
the
media.
Ken
Mehlman,
who
worked
as
Rove’s
No.
2
assistant
at
the
White
House
and
managed
Bush’s
re-election
campaign,
has
refused
to
answer
questions
about
his
sexual
orientation.
Mehlman
now
chairs
the
Republican
National
Committee.
From
1995
to
1997,
Hernandez
served
as
a
personal
aide
to
then
Gov.
George
W.
Bush
in
Austin,
Texas,
according
to
a
questionnaire
Hernandez
submitted
to
the
Senate
Committee
on
Commerce,
Science
&
Transportation,
which
is
overseeing
his
confirmation.
According
to
news
reports,
he
worked
as
Bush’s
travel
aide
during
Bush’s
2000
presidential
campaign
and
often
provided
the
candidate
with
breath
mints
before
speaking
engagements,
earning
him
the
nickname
“Altoid
Boy”
from
the
future
president.
In
his
June
16
confirmation
hearing,
Hernandez
told
members
of
the
Senate
commerce
panel
that
his
sister,
mother
and
father
were
present
at
the
hearing,
but
he
made
no
mention
of
a
domestic
partner.
In
the
questionnaire
submitted
to
the
committee
in
advance
of
his
testimony,
he
listed
his
residence
as
a
Falls
Church,
Va.,
townhouse
that,
according
to
tax
records,
is
owned
and
occupied
by
another
man,
Albert
A.
Gallegos.
A
male
voice
on
the
telephone
answering
machine
of
the
home
identified
himself
as
“Al,”
but
messages
left
seeking
comment
about
Hernandez’s
nomination
were
not
returned
by
deadline.
Christopher
Barron,
a
spokesperson
for
Log
Cabin
Republicans,
said
the
group
had
no
comment
on
reports
about
Hernandez’s
sexual
orientation.
In
the
past,
Barron
has
said
Log
Cabin
opposes
the
practice
of
“outing”
public
officials
or
other
people.
Daily
News
columnists
Rush
and
Molloy
did
not
return
a
call
seeking
comment
about
their
basis
for
claiming
Hernandez
was
gay
or
“openly
gay.”
Hernandez
received
a
bachelor’s
degree
in
political
science
and
philosophy
at
the
University
of
Texas
at
Austin
in
1992
and
a
master’s
degree
in
public
administration
from
Texas
A&M’s
George
Bush
School
of
Government
in
1999,
he
stated
on
the
questionnaire.
Gay
Republican
activist
Carl
Schmid
said
Hernandez
accompanied
Bush
during
the
2000
campaign
when
Bush
met
with
a
dozen
gay
Republican
leaders
at
his
campaign
office
in
Austin.
The
gay
attendees
became
known
as
the
“Austin
12.”
Schmid
said
he
does
not
know
whether
Hernandez
is
gay.
“He
goes
back
with
Bush
a
long
time,”
said
Schmid,
who
added
that
White
House
observers
consider
Hernandez
a
Bush
“insider.”
If
confirmed
by
the
...
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