Openly gay attorney Paul M. Smith will
speak this Thursday. |
Overturned!
On
Thursday, July 17, AEN's speaker will be Paul M. Smith,
the openly gay lawyer who successfully argued the landmark
sodomy case of Lawrence v. Texas before the United
States Supreme Court.
On Thursday,
June 26, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Texas' statute
outlawing same sex sodomy was unconstitutional. A 5-4 majority
of justices, led by Justice Anthony Kennedy, went further
and overturned the 1986 decision of Bowers v. Hardwick
which upheld a Georgia law (overturned in 1998 by the Georgia
Supreme Court) outlawing sodomy between all adults.
The
Lawrence decision overturned all the remaining sodomy
laws nationwide, ruling that LGBT people "are entitled
to respect for their private lives. The State cannot demean
their existence or control their destiny by making their
private sexual conduct a crime. Their right to liberty under
the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage
in their conduct without intervention of the government."
Mr.
Smith is a partner in Jenner & Block's Washington, D.C.
office. He is co-chair of the firm's Appellate and Supreme
Court and Media and First Amendment Practices. As a partner
at Jenner & Block since 1994, Mr. Smith has had an active
Supreme Court practice, including arguing several cases
in that court. Before coming to Jenner & Block in 1994,
Mr. Smith practiced for 13 years in Washington, D.C. with
the firms of Onek, Klein & Farr and Klein, Farr, Smith
& Taranto. During these years, his trial-level work
included a variety of constitutional and employment discrimination
cases.
He graduated
in 1976 from Amherst College and received a J.D. from Yale
Law School in 1979, after serving as editor-in-chief of
the Yale Law Journal. The following year, Smith was a law
clerk to Judge James L. Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Second Circuit. In 1980-81, he was a law clerk to
Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr.
Given
the recent decision, Mr. Smith's talk promises to be enlightening
as he gives the insider's view of this landmark case.
The
doors open at the Sheraton
Colony Square Hotel at 5:45 p.m.
The program begins at 6:45 p.m.
Members:
$10; Guests: $20; Students: Free
U.S.
Supreme Court: Decision
Background: Lambda
Legal
'Atlanta'
comes out
On Thursday,
June 19, Atlanta Magazine Editor-in-Chief Rebecca Burns
spoke to AEN.
Atlanta
Magazine is one of oldest city/regional magazines in
the country and one of the most respected, winning more
than 80 national awards for journalistic and design excellence.
Ms. Burns became editor in chief of the magazine in September
2002. She is the first female top editor of the magazine
and the first editor younger than the magazine itself.
Mrs.
Burns delighted and charmed the AEN audience with her warmth,
wit, and wicked sense of humor. She spoke with passion about
how Atlanta Magazine needs to reflect the city it
writes about, and how such expanded coverage makes good
business sense as well. She mentioned how in a city that
is majority African American, the magazine had rarely featured
any people of color. She has started to change that, and
the response has been positive. She next intends to incorporate
Atlanta's LGBT community into the magazine's coverage.
Mrs.
Burns' ability to laugh at herself charmed the audience
-- she even showed off a tattoo on her back, to the delight
of the crowd. To end the meeting, Ms. Burns distributed
her business card, urging people to e-mail her if they had
any ideas, suggestions, complaints, compliments, or criticisms
of her magazine.
Profile:
Rebecca
Burns
Web site: Atlanta
Magazine
AEN
wishes to thank the ACLU
of Georgia
for its generous partnership over the past year.
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success
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is compiling the stories of our success in networking. If you,
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new friends, we'd love to hear your story. Send an
to us with all the great details.
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Upcoming
speakers
 August
21
Spurgeon Richardson
President
Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau
 September
18
Helen Carroll
Homophobia in Sports Project Coordinator
National Center for Lesbian Rights
 October
16
Rep. Denise Majette
Congresswoman
Georgia, Fourth District
Announcements
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