Countywide : Gay Doctor Appointed to State Advisory Panel

A gay doctor from Orange County has been appointed to the state Venereal Disease Advisory Council.

Gay rights activists said the appointment of Dr. Don G. Hagan marks the second time that an openly gay Republican has received an appointment within Gov. George Deukmejian’s Administration. However, Kevin Brett, a spokesman for the governor, said he could not confirm that because appointments are made on the basis of an applicant’s qualifications and whether his political views coincide with Deukmejian’s. “Religious and sexual orientations are not a factor,” Brett said.

Hagan, 40, a Laguna Beach resident with a practice in Irvine, is a member of the Log Cabin Republican Club of Orange County, which is a political club for gay Republicans, and serves on the board of a gay Republican political action committee, Californians for Individual Rights and Civil Liberties (CIRCL).

Hagan said he hopes to share with fellow board members--a mix of nurses, doctors and educators--his views as an openly gay person on “the special problems that affect the gay community.”