Patrick Guerriero, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, will be the featured speaker at the Feb. 17 meeting of the Atlanta Executive Network, a gay business group. Guerriero took the helm of the national gay GOP group in January 2003, shepherding it through the 2004 presidential election, when the organization refused to endorse President Bush over his support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

With Bush beginning his second term, AEN members want to hear how Log Cabin will approach the next four years, said Dan Lax, AEN president. “In the aftermath of the 2004 presidential election, and with the threat of a Republican-sponsored anti-gay-marriage constitutional amendment at the national level, the Log Cabin Republicans were put in the challenging position of speaking out against aspects of their own party’s rhetoric,” Lax said.

Guerriero’s frequent television appearances during those debates “gave an important face to gay rights,” Lax said. “It is important for our membership to see that someone can be liberal or conservative, and still be fair-minded.”

Speaking to groups like AEN fits with Log Cabin’s strategy of moving the fight for gay rights beyond the Washington beltway, said Christopher Barron, Log Cabin political director. “I think if the election of 2004 taught us anything, it’s that we as gay and lesbian folks need to focus less on places like Washington, D.C., Hollywood and Manhattan, and more on places in the American heartland and the South,” Barron said.
Laura Douglas-Brown

Teens waive arraignment in killing of grandparents
Teen girls accused of killing one girl’s grandparents, allegedly in part to preserve the girls’ lesbian relationship, waived their Feb. 2 arraignments on murder and armed robbery charges. By waiving their rights to formal arraignments, both girls entered pleas of not guilty, according to Sheila Studdard, clerk of Fayette County Superior Court.

Holly Harvey, 15, and Sandra Ketchum, 16, face charges of malice murder, felony murder and armed robbery in the slaying of Harvey’s grandparents, Carl and Sarah Collier. Police allege the teens killed the Riverdale couple, both in their 70s, on Aug. 2 and then fled in Carl Collier’s pickup truck. The two were captured and arrested Aug. 3 in Tybee Island. They are charged as adults.

Harvey lived with her grandparents because her mother was incarcerated on drug charges. Police have said Harvey and Ketchum were involved in a lesbian relationship and Harvey’s grandparents forbid them to see each other. Lt. Col. Bruce Jordan of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department has described Ketchum’s alleged motive in the slayings as being “in it for the love.”

Both Harvey and Ketchum are scheduled for a trial calendar that begins March 21, Studdard said. Attorneys for both defendants have said in media interviews that they would ask for the trials to be moved from Fayette County, but no official motion for a change of venue had been filed with the court at press time.
Laura Douglas-Brown and Dyana Bagby

Gay politician’s accused killer wants trial moved
An attorney for the man charged with killing a gay former Fayette County commissioner by bludgeoning him with a concrete block filed a motion with the Fayette County Superior Court asking for a change of venue for the trial, according to Sheila Studdard, clerk of the court.

Thomas Richey, 33, is charged with felony murder and armed robbery in the death of Charles Mask, 74. Mask served as a Fayette commissioner from 1986-1988. He was found dead Sept. 9 in a Winnebago behind his Fayetteville home. Police said he was naked in a bed and a concrete block was used to crush his head. Mask’s wallet was found empty, and his Ford Ranger pick-up trick was missing. Authorities arrested Richey Sept. 20 in Rockwall, Texas, during a traffic stop. He was a passenger in the vehicle stopped by Rockwall police. Lt. Col. Bruce Jordan of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department said Richey hitchhiked to Texas from Atlanta.

At a brief press conference following Richey’s bond hearing on Sept. 24, Jordan said Richey told law officers he killed while “he was defending himself against a sexual assault by Mr. Mask.” The two men had a consensual sexual relationship for several weeks before the killing, Jordan said.

Richey was denied bond in the case. He waived arraignment Feb. 2, pleading not guilty, but will not be placed on a trial calendar until the change of venue motion is resolved, Studdard said. A hearing on the motion had not been scheduled at press time.
Laura Douglas-Brown and Dyana Bagby