LOS ANGELES (AP) – Dr. R. Scott Hitt, an AIDS specialist and the first openly gay person to head a presidential advisory board, has died. He was 49.

Dr. Hitt died Thursday of colon cancer at his home in West Hollywood, according to Mayor John Duran, a longtime friend.

Dr. Hitt was chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS during President Clinton’s administration in the 1990s.

“I think Scott’s legacy was drawing AIDS to the attention of the president,” Duran said. “He was uncompromising. He was not afraid of challenging the president about what would make good public policy.”

When Clinton released a set of goals in December 1996 that called for a cure, a vaccine, and a guarantee of good-quality care for AIDS patients, Dr. Hitt pressed for more measures to stem the rapid spread of the disease among intravenous drug users.

“We’re going to hold the administration’s feet to the fire to make sure the steps they take accomplish the goals they set,” he told the Associated Press in an interview at the time.

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, Dr. Hitt focused his activism on gay and lesbian issues. He continued practicing as an AIDS doctor until he was accused in 2000 of molesting two male patients.

Dr. Hitt, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, acknowledged touching one patient inappropriately and “crossing a boundary” with another patient. He said that he had been diagnosed with colon cancer a year earlier and that after undergoing three surgeries and chemotherapy, his judgment was impaired.

He later gave up his medical license after being arrested in an investigation of possessing a controlled substance.

While battling cancer, Dr. Hitt started a foundation to promote activism in the GLBT community.

He leaves his companion of 27 years, Alex Koleszar, and his sisters, Alana Hoffman and Heather Martin.

WHEELING, Ill. (AP) – A moderate church leader, the Rev. Jeffrey Lee, was elected the 12th Bishop of Chicago at the diocese convention Saturday, defeating seven other candidates, including an openly lesbian priest.

If the 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.”

“He would be perceived as someone who is qualified for the job, but not polarizing as other candidates might have been,” said the Rev. Canon Mike Stephenson of the Diocese of Chicago. “I think the vote says it’s a healthy diocese, ... that it wants to be unified.”

Speaking to more than 500 delegates by telephone from Washington state, Lee said he was “honored and humbled” by his election.

“I can’t wait to join you in building up the church in Illinois,” he said. He did not address the issue of same-sex clergy in his brief comments by phone.

Earlier this year, Anglican leaders demanded that the Americans to pledge unequivocally not to consecrate another gay bishop or approve an official prayer service for same-sex couples.

In response, Episcopal bishops said at a September meeting in New Orleans that they will “exercise restraint” in approving another gay bishop and won’t authorize prayers to bless same-sex couples – a position Lee supported.

NEW YORK (AP) – Columbia Law School’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic has secured asylum for Ven Messam, a gay man who feared persecution if forced to return to Jamaica because of his sexual orientation. The grant of asylum, issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, comes at a time when conditions for GLBT people in Jamaica are getting more dangerous by the day.

Within just the last month, gay Jamaicans have been murdered and the government has not intervened. Rampant rumors that hostile groups are plotting the social cleansing of hundreds of gay people by year’s end have forced countless GLBT people into hiding. Far from a tropical paradise, this Caribbean nation continues to imprison and kill its gay citizens with relative impunity.

“I am grateful to the United States government for saving my life,” said Mr. Messam. “My life in Jamaica was constantly in danger, with angry mobs carrying machetes, stones, knives, and guns, threatening to kill me because I am gay. When I tried to contact the police for help, the police instead threatened to arrest me and told me to leave the country if I wanted to stay safe.”

“This asylum grant highlights the particularly severe dangers facing gay Jamaicans. From election campaigns that use songs that promote burning and killing gay people to police support for violent, anti-gay mobs, the Jamaican government is actively menacing and endangering its gay citizens,” said professor Suzanne B. Goldberg, director of the Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic.

“Mr. Messam’s personal story, and the stories of countless other Jamaicans demonstrate the terrifying situation facing GLBT individuals in Jamaica” said Simrin Parmar, one of the Columbia law students who worked on this case. “We are thankful that Mr. Messam will be able to live openly as a gay man—safe from government-sponsored persecution,” remarked Jennifer Stark, another Columbia law student who worked on this case, “but it is alarming to think about the fate of other GLBT people in Jamaica who are not as fortunate.”

Mr. Messam was referred to Columbia’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic by Immigration Equality, a national organization focused on immigration rights for GLBT individuals, which provided important assistance in the case.

Since this past September, four students from Columbia’s Sexuality and Gender Clinic – Simrin Parmar ’08, Jennifer Stark ’09, Jonathan Lieberman ’08, and Eileen Plaza ’09 – have provided legal assistance in preparing their client’s application for asylum. The students spent many months conducting interviews, drafting affidavits, researching country conditions, filling out necessary forms, accompanying their client to the New York asylum office, and providing assistance during his interview.

“This experience–where students are responsible for working through the challenges of a case that makes a real world difference in an emerging and important area of law–is what the Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic is all about,” said professor Suzanne B. Goldberg. “Thanks to the students’ work, we can now provide supporting materials to asylum advocates for gay Jamaicans anywhere in the world,” she added.

Columbia Law School’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic began in September 2006 and currently has eight students.

Columbus (AP) – Three men who sought permits to burn ceremonial items in public, including the rainbow-colored flag of the gay rights movement, can continue with a lawsuit against the city of Columbus, a federal appeals court ruled.

The plaintiffs include Charles Spingola and Thomas Meyer, who were convicted in Franklin County Environmental Court and fined $100 each for the misdemeanor charge of open burning without a permit. They were arrested in 2001 in violation of their First Amendment right to free speech because city officials are hostile to people who may offend the gay community, the plaintiffs argued.

On Tuesday, a three-member panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati agreed that the plaintiffs had ground to sue over Columbus’ permit application process, which Spingola and Meyer complained was confusing and burdensome. But the court rejected the plaintiffs’ claim of selective enforcement and denied efforts by Spingola and Meyer to seek damages.

Spingola and Meyer were joined in the lawsuit by David Daubenmire, founder of a Christian group called Pass the Salt Ministries who was denied a city permit to burn the rainbow-colored flag outside a federal courthouse in 2004 along with a copy of the Quran and copies of U.S. Supreme Court decisions “viewed by Christians as undermining Biblical morality,” court documents said.

The plaintiffs’ attorney, Thomas Condit of Cincinnati, said yesterday that the appeals court ruling is a First Amendment victory that will ultimately require the city of Columbus to adopt a clear policy that lets demonstrators get burning permits “without being mercilessly jerked around.”

A message seeking comment was left yesterday with the Columbus city attorney’s office.

SEATTLE (AP) – A Seattle lesbian has been awarded $4.4 million in her harassment suit against Goodyear.

Melissa Sheffield says she was antagonized and harassed because of her sexual orientation at the Goodyear store where she worked in Seattle and says she was demoted after she complained.

Her attorney, Daniel F. Johnson, says the jury award sends a message to employers in Washington that discrimination and retaliation will not be tolerated.

Sheffield began working for Goodyear in 1994 and worked her way up to manager of a store near Northgate Mall.

Goodyear says the harassment began in 2003 when new managers were appointed to supervise her. One made sure she knew he didn’t like gays. She complained and eventually that manager was fired. At the same time, she was demoted and her pay was cut.

The company says her demotion stemmed from her own misconduct.