And now the 26-year-old has a new position: head of the new President’s Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Under Bush, this was called the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, and it spent a lot of money pushing abstinence-only programs.

Obama’s idea is different. His office will increase spending on social services – it will also forbid religious organizations from sexual orientation discrimination in hiring in any services that are taxpayer supported.

What it seems like to me is this: Obama’s religous outreach is not witchhunting or targeting gays in any way. But it also is not looking at us as important religious partners. Newsweek columnist Sally Quinn says that DuBois was the person who first floated Rick Warren’s name as a possible inaugural speaker; DuBois, who was in charge of faith-based outreach for the Obama campaign, also put together the program that featured Donnie McClurkin, an “ex-gay” gospel singer who has said that “homosexuality is a curse.”

DuBois is young. I don’t think he did these things to send a message to gays and lesbians – I think he did those things because he doesn’t figure us in at all.

Gays and lesbians have given religion over to the right. This is not good. There are many religions that have denied us our personhood; there are many of us who have been hurt by the religious traditions we grew up in. But gays are a diverse people, and there are many of us who are religious or spiritual – and we should not be ignored by a national program that should serve the whole country.

My hope is that gay religious organizations will approach DuBois’s office about funding their valuable social service programs that assist homeless queer youth, people with AIDS, and other disenfranchised LGBT communities.

Any President’s Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships should not only be reaching out to Evangelicals – it should also be reaching out to us.

DuBois, a political strategist who was religious affairs director in the Obama campaign, will head the President’s Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, a senior administration official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made by Obama.

Obama said during the campaign that he wanted to expand White House faith-based efforts begun under former President George W. Bush.

But while he endorsed Bush’s initiative to give religious groups more equal footing when getting federal funding, he also promised to tweak it.

He has changed the name of the White House effort from its original Office of Faith-based Initiatives to display a broader focus. Obama has promised to increase spending on social services, increase training for charities applying for funding and make that a grass-roots effort, and to elevate the program’s status within the White House.

And while Bush supported allowing all religious groups to make any employment decisions based on faith, Obama has proposed allowing religious institutions to hire and fire based on religion only in the non-taxpayer-funded portions of their activities – consistent with current federal, state and local laws. Where there are state or local laws prohibiting hiring choices based on sexual orientation in the federally funded portion of the programs, he has said he would support those being applied.

Among DuBois’ duties on the Obama campaign was reaching out to the evangelical community. Though not a natural Democratic constituency, evangelicals have had increased common cause with Democrats on issues of the environment and poverty.

The story was first reported by The New York Times.