Posted on 10/20/2002 10:16:33 PM PDT by USA21
Rights Foundation gives 2002 award to Hillary Clinton
BY JENNIFER MALONEY jmaloney@herald.com
U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, one of Congress' staunchest supporters of gay rights, was honored Saturday night with the Dade Human Rights Foundation's 2002 National Impact Award.
About 1,400 people paid $175 a plate at the Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa in Hollywood to see the junior Democratic senator from New York and former first lady get her award.
''One of the pieces of unfinished business in this country is that we eliminate all vestiges of discrimination and bias and be sure that the laws fully protect all of us,'' she said.
The 8-year-old foundation, an umbrella group for local gay-rights organizations, recognized Clinton for various stands she has taken, including her support of extending benefits for Sept. 11 victims to gay partners and her cosponsorship of a bill that would prohibit discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation. The bill has yet to gain enough backing to pass Congress.
''We have a long way to go . . . but we are making progress,'' she said.
Said MarkyG, a host on Miami techno-pop radio station Party 93.1: ``It's wonderful to have a role model, someone we can take pride in who supports us and who doesn't make you feel like second-class citizens. Hillary makes you feel just like everyone else.''
Also praising Clinton: Janet Reno, the former U.S. attorney general and gubernatorial candidate who attended the dinner and drew some of the crowd's loudest applause.
''She speaks volumes for Americans fighting against discrimination,'' Reno said.
Clinton thanked the crowd for helping defeat a Sept. 10 Miami-Dade initiative to repeal the county's gay-rights amendment that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Voters elected to keep the amendment.
The foundation -- which announced it's changing its name to the Gay and Lesbian Foundation of South Florida -- gave its Humanitarian Award on Saturday to Lee Brian Schrager, director of media and special events for Southern Wine and Spirits of America, the country's largest distributor of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages.
Southern Wine and Spirits has made donations to several South Florida gay and AIDS-related charities and was a major sponsor of the 2002 Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. The award was sponsored by The Herald.
Former winners of the National Impact Award include House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt and Miami's Billy Bean, a retired major-league baseball player who made national news by revealing he is gay.
N.G.O of the U.N
Well, while I can then, I will speak the truth:
It is not OK to be gay. Quite the opposite; the gay lifestyle is morally abhorrent, destructive to health, and destructive to society.
God Bless America and the First Amendment.
Depends on how much power Americans give to the ACLU and the judicial system
"In reality they are the same thing,"
Of course....
"Hi, I'm Bob and I'm anal sex." "Uh....."
Which is a bit like saying that all blacks have rhythm?
I don't think even they have any idea what they are saying. How do you equate homosexuality with skin color? The acknowledgement that there is more than one race of human is, in and of itself, by definition, racist.
These race baiters are the biggest racists on the planet. There is no such thing as a different race of human. Human is the race.
It should be noted,
Svend Robinson is a strong supporter of Arafat,
whom he has visited many times at government expense.
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