Alan Van Capelle to Leave ESPA

Less than two months after the defeat of a marriage equality bill in the New York state senate, Alan van Capelle, the executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, the statewide gay rights group, has announced that he will leave the organization.

According to Liz Benjamin at the New York Daily News, Van Capelle is leaving the organization in the spirit of "change." He will take a position with newly elected city comptroller John Liu.

"Van Capelle is breaking the news this morning to the staff at ESPA, where his seven-year tenure makes his the organization's longest-serving executive director," reports Benjamin. "He will be Liu's deputy comptroller for external affairs, serving as a chief advisor on intergovernmental relations, politics and communications. He will start his new job in early March.

"'Executive directors tend to have a shelf life of five or six years,'" Van Capelle told me this morning. 'I think change is good. Period,'" Benjamin writes.

Joe Tarver, communications director for ESPA, will serve as interim executive director while a replacement is sought.