 |
 |
| Nancy Schaefer, founder of the conservative group Family Concerns,
wants to move from lobbying in the hallways to legislating in the state House. |
|
|
| | |
| |
|
|
| | |
HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: RYAN LEE
COMMENTS |
| 
With expected fights over gay adoption and hate crimes legislation looming, next
year’s General Assembly session may feature fresh faces from both sides
of the political spectrum.
The freshman class could include Jan Hackney, the mother of a gay son and recent
recipient of AIDS Survival Project’s Volunteer of the Year Award. It could
also include Nancy Schaefer, founder of the conservative lobby Family Concerns,
who has fought gay rights on the state and local level for almost two decades.
And in two DeKalb County races, a pair of gay-friendly attorneys seeking their
first elected office face two Republicans likely to vote against gay issues
— one a former state legislator who supports banning gay marriage, and
the other an attorney who once wrote that he should not be made a “criminal”
if he chooses to fire an employee based on sexual orientation.
With Republicans fighting to retain control of the state Senate and take control
of the state House, gay political pundits said the Nov. 2 election could shape
the coming decades for gay and lesbian Georgians.
“There certainly is the potential for there to be a few more progressives
[in the General Assembly], but many of the conservative candidates are more
conservative than we would like to see,” said Larry Pellegrini, a veteran
gay lobbyist at the state Capitol. “Until election day, it will be hard
to tell which way the legislature is going to tip.”
Nearly every day of this year’s legislative session, Sadie Fields, chair
of the Christian Coalition of Georgia, walked the halls of the state Capitol,
endlessly lobbying lawmakers to pass a constitutional ban on gay marriages.
Pellegrini fears gay men and lesbians may face a similar battle inside the
legislative chambers next year if Republican Nancy Schaefer is elected to represent
state House District 50, which includes Habersham and Hart counties.
“She was the Sadie Fields of the ‘80s and ‘90s,” Pellegrini
said. “If it was anti-gay, she was there, so it’s unsettling to
think we very well may be facing her every day in the General Assembly.”
Schaefer did not respond to repeated interview requests.
A former candidate for state senate, lieutenant governor and mayor of Atlanta,
Schaefer opposed the creation of domestic partner benefits for city of Atlanta
employees, and advocated sex education that treated homosexuality as a mental
deficiency, Pellegrini said.
Her campaign Web site is peppered with endorsements of gay marriage bans and
calls for “judicial limitation legislation” to curb “judicial
tyranny.”
“We are at a pivotal juncture in this country,” Schaefer wrote
on the Web site. “Warnings are everywhere and the storm clouds have gathered.
We have sat on the sidelines while Creator God, our very strength and protection,
has been removed from our schools, our market place and our government.”
Schaefer’s primary opponent tried unsuccessfully to paint her as too
extreme, but voters still have some reservations about her arch-conservative
positions, according to Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the
University of Georgia.
“Some people I have talked to up there were put off by her, and they
were Republicans,” Bullock said. “She may be a bit too conservative
for some folks.”
Schaefer, who has been endorsed by retiring U.S. Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.),
should win the District 50 seat if she gets anywhere near what a Republican
is expected to get in that district, Bullock said.
But Democrat Bob Stowe has made a strong pitch to moderate voters.
Stowe, an elementary school principal, did not respond to interview requests.
He also supports a heterosexual definition of marriage, according to the Northeast
Georgian newspaper.
“Although he doesn’t profess any pro-gay attitudes, he’s
not a basher,” Pellegrini said of Stowe. “He would be part of a
Democratic majority and indebted to the party for helping him get there.”
Mansell McCord, president of the Georgia Log Cabin Republicans, a gay GOP group,
said Schaefer and Stowe were symbols of how far both parties still need to go
in educating their members about gay issues.
“We’ve got plenty of folks within both political parties that we
need to continue to work on,” McCord said.
A crop of new candidates enthusiastically embraced gay-friendly positions,
and said they are eager to add their voices to those championing full equality
for gay and lesbian Georgians.
“Frankly the GLBT community has become ...
| 
