Bush's newly minted gay appointee

When President George W. Bush nominated his longtime aide Israel Hernandez, 35, for assistant secretary at the Department of Commerce, a ripple went up the East Coast.

That's because Hernandez--dubbed "Altoid Boy" by the president because of his penchant for carrying the mints--would be, if confirmed, the first openly gay person named to a significant post in the second Bush administration.

Hernandez (photographs of whom remain unavailable) has been Bush's aide for 10 years, earning during that time a degree from Texas A&M's George H.W. Bush School of Government and Public Policy. The New York Daily News reported that Hernandez has already brought his partner to White House events, but said partner was absent from Hernandez's confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill on June 16, prompting a flurry of angry statements from watchdog Web sites.

"What makes me frustrated," says Mike Rogers of BlogActive.com, "is that it's denial by omission." But the final word on Hernandez--and on his place among those closest to the president--has yet to be written. One open question: Once confirmed, will he step out as an openly gay man in Bush's Washington?--S.W.

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