American gay rights advocate dies in Scotland

Sad news of a student activists death has crossed the Atlantic. 365gay.com reports:

(Edinburgh) Cody Lavender, an American exchange student, has fallen to his death from a dormitory room window at the University of Edinburgh.

Police are investigating but say there is nothing to indicate foul play.

Lavender, 20, had been watching television with friends when he suddenly plunged through the window witnesses said.

He was to have returned this week to the US for Christmas.

Lavender was raised in southern Arizona and in 2006 headed east to Dartmouth College to major in women and gender studies . He became co-chair of the student LGBT group Gender Sexuality XYZ and was an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights.

Earlier this year he went to Edinburgh as a part of Dartmouth’s foreign study program to take a religious studies course.

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