Gay lawmaker expects ‘intense’ session

Gay lawmaker expects ‘intense’ session
Former gay official hired to lead fight agains

t adoption bill

By ANDREW KEEGAN
Dec. 30, 2005

With the 2006 General Assembly set to open Jan. 9, Georgia’s only
openly gay state legislator said she is preparing for an “intense”
session, and the state’s largest gay political group is already
strategizing for a fight over gay adoption.

Rep. Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates) said this week that almost any
social issue could provide drama during the upcoming 40-day
legislative session.

“With Ralph Reed on the ticket it wouldn’t surprise me to see some
nastier things than normal this year,” Drenner said.

Reed, a Republican who is running for lieutenant governor of Georgia,
served as the executive director for the Christian Coalition during
its heyday, from 1989 to 1997. The conservative group was known for
mass mailings and voter guides on candidates’ records on such issues
as abortion and gay rights.
http://www.sovo.com/2005/12-30/news/...ws_woolard.cfm


“There will be a heavy focus on school prayer and the Ten
Commandments,” Drenner said. “And sexual predators will get a lot of
discussion. Who knows, gays may be lumped in there somewhere.”

Rumors of a GOP-sponsored gay adoption ban continue to surface
periodically, according to Drenner. But she said there is no concrete
evidence a bill prohibiting gays from being foster parents or adopting
will be filed.

“If it does, I expect it will come from the Senate,” Drenner said,
mentioning Sen. Nancy Schaefer (R-Turnersville) as a possible sponsor.

Schaefer took aim at gay foster parents in a column published by the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sept. 21.

“To ban children being adopted by same-sex couples is solid policy,”
Schaefer stated.

Although the possibility of an adoption ban was rumored at the
beginning of the 2005 legislative session, it never materialized.

The issue resurfaced this summer after the appointment of Mary Dean
Harvey as the state’s Division of Family & Children Services. She was
appointed by Gov. Sonny Perdue and B.J. Walker, commissioner of the
state Department of Human Resources, which administers DFCS.

Georgia’s Division of Family & Children Services, which oversees state
adoptions and foster care, currently has no rule on gay foster parents
or gay adoptions. But Harvey banned gay foster care during her tenure
as director of Nebraska’s Department of Social Services, fueling
speculation among some gay activists that the state agency, or Perdue,
would pursue a similar ban.

Gov. Sonny Perdue, a foster parent himself, reportedly told the Log
Cabin Republicans in October 2003 he supported gay adoptions. But he
later told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that “children are best
served by a mother and a father” and “I do not support gay people
adopting.”

Drenner said she is encouraged by the recent decision by gay rights
groups in several states to work together to formulate a plan to fight
potential bans on gay adoption.

“I’m tired of always waiting around to react to an anti-gay bill,” she
said. “I’m in the mindset to introduce bills and have them explain why
it’s not a good idea.”

Woolard returns
Georgia Equality, a statewide gay advocacy group, recently joined with
the Kentucky Fairness Alliance and Missouri’s state gay group, PROMO,
in organizing the defeat of anti-gay adoption legislation.

The three groups have hired former Atlanta City Council President
Cathy Woolard to develop a strategy to defeat any proposed adoption
ban that surfaces in the states.

Woolard was also hired as a lobbyist for Georgia Equality, according
to Chuck Bowen, the group’s executive director.

Woolard, the state’s first openly gay elected official, was elected to
the Atlanta City Council District 6 seat in 1997. Four years later,
she was elected City Council president and later resigned in an
unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Congress.

Georgia Equality’s office was closed this week, but Bowen issued a
short statement on Woolard’s hiring Dec. 28.

“Cathy Woolard will be our lobbyist this session with her primary
focus on defeating the adoption bill,” the statement read. “I will
also continue in my role as GE’s lobbyist.”

Bowen said the group would release more information about Woolard’s
compensation and other issues related to the hiring next week.

Woolard could not be reached for comment by press time.

Parental permission
Another topic expected to surface in the upcoming legislative session
is an attempt by state lawmakers to mandate students must have their
parent’s permission to join school-sanctioned clubs.

Last year Senate Bill 149, sponsored by Schaefer, and House Bill 149,
sponsored by Rep. Bobby Reese (R-Sugar Hill), sought to require
parental notification for students to join any school clubs.

Both bills were tabled when the Georgia Board of Education agreed to
look into the issue. But the state board voted 10-3 against the
proposal.

Critics of the proposal argued it was an attack on gay-straight
student alliances on a handful of Georgia’s high school campuses, most
of them in metro Atlanta.

An opinion column published Dec. 21 in the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution by Herbert Garrett, executive director of the
Georgia School Superintendents Association, outlined what school
officials feel is really behind the GOP’s concern for students.

The bills “are touted by their sponsors as legislation intended to
increase the level of parental involvement in their children’s
education; In reality, the bills are a reaction to the formation of a
controversial student organization, Gay-Straight Alliance, on a high
school campus in White County,” Garrett wrote.

Drenner called the effort further evidence of hypocrisy.

“We want to require a student to get permission to join a club, but
not if they’re pregnant and want to get married?” Drenner said.

The lawmaker was referring to a recent high-profile case in which a
15-year-old boy married a 37 year-old woman. The teen is the father of
Lisa Lynnette Clark’s unborn child.

Clark allegedly had a two-year sexual relationship with the teen, a
friend of her son.

Drenner said she plans to introduce legislation requiring parental
consent for marriages of people under the age of 18.

She also plans to sponsor the House version of a hate crimes bill.
Sen. Vincent Fort plans to do the same in the Senate, Drenner said.

In 2004, the Georgia Supreme Court struck down the state’s hate crimes
law, ruling unanimously that the four-year-old statute creating
enhanced penalties for crimes motivated by “bias or prejudice” was
“unconstitutionally vague.”

Drenner indicated the bill would likely be the target of conservative
lawmakers.

“I can hear it now,” she said. “All crimes are hate crimes.”

Andrew Keegan can be reached at .

© 2005 The Southern Voice | A Window Media Publication
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