Local News: Hate Crimes Bill Introduced in Senate, p.4
Local NOWS: Quilt Coming to Conway SC, |L5
March 18,2005
Serving the Carolinas For Over 25 Years!
volume 26, Number 6
Joe Solmonese will take over
HRC on April 11
Solmonese
Named to
Lead HRC
By Bob Roehr
Contributing Writer
Hie Human Rights Campaign
(HRC) has hired Joe Solmonese as
their next president Rumors of
die decision had been circulating
for more than a week and were
made official on March 9. He
starts on April 11.
Solmonese, 40, has worked for
EMILY's List for a dozen years,
the last two as the head of that
group where he managed a bud
get of $40 million and a staff of 85.
Hie organization describes itself
. as "the nation's largest grassroots
political network, dedicated to
taking back our country from the
radical right wing by electing pro
choice Democratic women to fed
eral, state, and local office."
He is a Massachusetts native
who graduated from Boston
University in 1987. He began his
career as an aide in the office of
governor Michael Dukakis and
played a significant fundraising
role in Rep. Barney Frank's 1990
congressional campaign. He came
out in his early twenties and has
been a volunteer with HRC
Vic Basile cochaired the search
committee that hired Solmonese.
In an exclusive interview he said,
"Joe is quit a charismatic speak
er...he is a tested political opera
tive with a long track record, way
outside the beltway. We're satis
continued on page 12
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California Court OKs Marriage
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ A judge
ruled Monday that California can no
longer justify limiting marriage to a
man and a woman, a legal milestone
that if upheld on appeal would pave
the way for the nation's most populous
state to follow Massachusetts in allow
ing same-sex couples to wed.
In an opinion mat had been awaited
because of San Francisco’s historical
role as a gay rights battleground, San
Francisco County Superior Court
Judge Richard Kramer said that with
holding marriage licenses from gays
and lesbians is unconstitutional.
'It appears that no rational purpose
exists for limiting marriage in this state
to opposite-sex partners," Kramer
wrote.
The judge wrote that the state's his
torical definition of marriage, by itself,
cannot justify the unconstitutional
denial of equal protection for gays and
lesbiand and their right to marry.
"The state's protracted denial of
equal protection cannot be justified
simply because such constitutional vio
lation has become traditional," Kramer
wrote.
Kramer's decision came in a pair of
lawsuits seeking to overturn
California's statutory ban on gay mar
riage. They were brought by the city of
San Francisco and a dozen same-sex
couples last March, after the California
Supreme Court halted the four-week
marriage spree Mayor Gavin Newsom
had initiated when he directed city offi
cials to issue marriage licenses to gays
and lesbians in defiance of state law.
'Today's ruling is an important step
toward a more fair and just California,
that rejects discrimination and affirms
family values for all California fami
lies," San Francisco City Attorney
Dennis Herrera said.
Robert Tyler, an attorney with the
conservative Alliance Defense Fund,
said the group would appeal Kramer's
ruling.
It could be months or years before
the state actually sanctions same-sex
marriage, if it sanctions the unions at
all. The Alliance Defense Fund and
another legal group representing reli
gious conservatives joined with
California's attorney general in defend
ing the existing laws.
Attorney General Bill Lockyer has
said in file past that he expected the
matter eventually would have to be set
tled by the California Supreme Court.
. Iherese Stewart, attorney for the city
N.u. Heugious Leaders
Rally To Oppose
Constitutional
Amendment
RALEIGH — On Tuesday, March 15,
100 religious leaders horn across
North Carolina will gathered to
oppose the proposed "Defense of
Marriage" constitutional amend
ment. They held a rally at noon in
front of the general assembly build
ing, where speakers from diverse
faith-based and secular perspectives
explained why North Carolina
should not write discrimination into
its constitution. Audience members
held signs identifying their denomi
nations and faiths, such as "I'm a
Baptist", 'Tm a Buddhist" and 'Tm an
Episcopalian”.
"As religious leaders and people of
faith in North Carolina, we are
standing on the right side of history,"
said the Reverend Jack McKinney of
Raleigh’s Pullen Memorial Baptist
Church. "In 20 years,- our children
will look back and be proud of us for
taking a stand against discrimina
tion."
The amendment has been a rally
ing point for people of diverse faiths
to work together. Catholics, Jews,
Presbyterians, Lutherans, Quakers
continued on page 9
and county of San Francisco said
today's decision is historic, setting the
framework for future challenges in
state appeals courts and at the ballot
box that eventually will determine that
gays and lesbians should be allowed to
marry.
'It's a foregone conclusion that it's
going to go up on appeal," Stewart said.
Meanwhile, a pair of bills pending
before the California Legislature would
put a constitutional amendment ban
ning Same-sex marriage on the
November ballot If California voters
follow the 13 other states that approved
such amendments last yeai; that would
put the issue out of the control of law
makers and the courts.
Nevertheless, tire plaintiffs and their
lawyers said Kramer's ruling was a
milestone for California, akin to the
1948 state Supreme Court decision that
made California the first state in the
nation to legalize interracial marriage.
Hie decision is the latest develop
ment in a national debate on the legali
ty and morality of same-sex marriage
that has been raging since 2003, when
the highest court in Massachusetts
decided that denying gay couples the
right to wed was unconstitutional in
that state.
In the wake of the Massachusetts rul
ing, gay rights advocates filed lawsuits
seeking to strike down traditional mar
riage laws in several other states, and
opponents responded by proposing
continued on page 14