WASHINGTON — With his open-collar plaid shirt and slow Southern drawl, Harry Knox manages to make a spacious, glass conference room as cozy as the front porch of his Georgia home.

It’s a far cry from the portrait of a militant, anti-Catholic gay activist that some conservative Catholics painted of Knox after he was tapped to serve on an advisory panel for the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Knox, 48, was appointed to the 25-member advisory panel following his four years of work as a liaison to religious groups for the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s largest gay rights groups.

Conservatives say Knox is anything but Southern comfort, blasting his criticism of the Vatican’s prohibition of condoms and churches that withhold Communion from gay activists. One public letter to Obama called Knox the “hate-filled antithesis” of the “noble objective” of the faith-based office.

“It’s not about public policy disagreements, but about criticizing the tenets or practices of another religion,” said Chuck Donovan, vice president for government affairs at the Family Research Council, and one of 22 conservatives who signed the anti-Knox letter.

Donovan said he and others are worried that Knox will use his objections to church teaching to argue against government funding for church-run social service programs.

Similar concerns about politicized funding decisions are what led the Obama White House to overhaul the office. The office no longer distributes grants, and a reform task force that Knox sits on is trying to steer the White House away from church-state entanglements.

Knox insists his work on behalf of gay rights legislation won’t come into play as often as his critics might fear.

“The (White House) council doesn’t exist to wrestle with LGBT issues per se,” he said. “My work at HRC is sort of one part of my life, and my work on the council is a little separated.”

Knox was one of hundreds of activists invited to the White House on Monday (June 30) for a brief ceremony to mark the 40th anniversary of the modern gay rights movement. He chose his words carefully when asked to assess Obama, saying he is “eager to help the president to send positive messages,” but “the proof will be in the pudding.”

Knox was raised in rural Cordele, Ga., by a family deeply involved in the United Methodist Church. “My family is the kind that opens the doors of the church in the morning and turns off the lights as they leave at night,” he said.

Growing up, he campaigned for Republicans and was headed for the seminary. But when his sexual orientation derailed his path to the pulpit, he said he became an activist out of necessity.

Allen Thornell, a former executive director of the group Georgia Equality, where Knox once worked, said Knox’s roots brought him instant credibility.

“Harry is a Southerner, so he kind of naturally fits in. He’s got that charm. He’s got the voice. He knows how the backslapping works,” Thornell said.

Knox is now seeking ordination with the gay-friendly United Church of Christ. Preaching a gospel of inclusion, Knox said his message is personal.

Whenever he returns to Georgia to visit his husband’s mother in the hospital, he must defend his right to sit by her bedside. When he and his husband, Mike, whom he married in California in 2008, part in public, they scan their surroundings to make sure it’s safe to sneak a good-bye kiss.

“It’s about LGBT people being able to live sanely and safely in every community of our country,” he said. “Not just in gay ghettos.”

But anti-discrimination and hate-crimes laws are not about protecting gays and lesbians so much as “silencing people of faith,” said Andrea Lafferty, of the Traditional Values Coalition.

Lafferty said it was Knox’s “homosexuality,” not his “Christianity,” that got him a seat on the advisory council.

But those who label Knox a “virulent anti-Catholic bigot” don’t represent the larger faith community, he said, and mostly exist to “stir up trouble from the right wing.”

“I certainly think the rhetoric is changing. They are seeking to be kinder and gentler,” he said. “What they don’t understand is that there’s simply no nice way to say to someone, `You deserve to be fired because you’re gay.’ There’s no nice way to say, `We’re not going to protect you against violence in the street just because you’re transgender.'”

His ultimate goal, Knox said, is to get his opponents to see gays and lesbians as “human beings,” not “an issue.” It worked for Gandhi, said Knox, who looks to the slain Indian liberator for guidance.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win,” he said, quoting Gandhi. “The fact that they’re fighting us so hard is a sign that we are winning.”