Gay Washington Post editor and partner die in car crash

Bryant Snapp, 36, editorial page copy chief at The Washington Post, and his partner, David Hancock, 45, a computer technician, were killed July 22 in a traffic accident near Toledo, Wash., the Post reports. The Takoma Park, Md., residents were vacationing in Seattle and were returning from a trip to Mount St. Helens. Washington State police said that Seattle landscape architect David K. Ringstrom, 49, driver of the BMW sedan in which the men were riding, also was killed. The BMW collided head-on with a water tanker that swerved into the car's lane on Washington State Route 505, two miles east of Toledo. The truck driver was treated at a Seattle hospital. Snapp was a native of Alexandria, Va., and a graduate of Edison High School. He was a copy editor for nine years at The Washington Times and a medical editor in Philadelphia before joining the Post's national copy desk in 1999. As deputy copy chief on the national desk, he handled stories involving major events such as the 2000 Florida presidential vote recount and the war in Afghanistan. He was a member of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. He and Hancock had been partners since 2001 and participated in a commitment ceremony in Honolulu last year.