The White House has announced nine new appointments to its Faith Office. A gay man is in, and an anti-gay former coach is out.

Harry Knox is among the new appointments announced Monday to President Obama's Advisory Council to the White House Office of Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships, an extension of President Bush's Faith-Based Council that delivered funds to church social groups. The 25-member council met Monday for the first time and will do so again today.

Knox is the director of Human Rights Campaign's Religion & Faith Program. HRC is the nation's largest advocate for gay and lesbian rights. New Hampshire Bishop Rev. Gene Robinson, the openly gay man whose 2003 consecration has splintered the worldwide Episcopal Church into several factions, also serves alongside Knox on the HRC panel.

Knox is a former pastor of a United Methodist Church in Georgia.

“I hope this council will draw upon the richness of our unique perspectives to advise the president on policies that will improve the lives of all the people we have been called to serve,” Knox said in a statement.

“The [gay and lesbian] community is eager to help the administration achieve its goals around economic recovery and fighting poverty, fatherhood and healthy families; inter-religious dialogue; care for the environment; and global poverty, health and development.”

Missing from the list is former Indianapolis Colts Coach Tony Dungy, who said he decline the president's invitation to join due to scheduling conflicts.

Last week, the news that Dungy had been asked to advise the president on faith issues sparked outrage from liberal and gay groups alike. Dungy supported a 2007 effort to ban gay marriage in Indiana.

“The Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships council shouldn't be used to reward voices of intolerance like Tony Dungy,” Tanya Clay House, director of public policy at People for the American Way, said in a statement.

Groups have also criticized the inclusion of Joel Hunter and Jim Wallis to the panel. Hunter once headed the Christian Coalition, the most widely recognized anti-gay and anti-abortion group in the nation. He now runs a conservative megachurch in Florida. Wallis is a vocal opponent of gay marriage and currently serves as president and chief executive of Sojourners, a Washington-based evangelical magazine.