Press release:
The State of Equality – A Conversation on the State of Equality in North Carolina and in the nation with special guests: Constance McMillen, Christine Sun and Dan Fotou.
Sunday, March 6, 2011 2:30 – 4:30 PM
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville
1 Edwin Place, Asheville, NC
Panelist meet & greet following event @ Pack’s Tavern
Panelists:
Constance made national news in 2010 when she challenged her Mississippi school district’s discriminatory decision to forbid her from brining her girlfriend to her high school prom. Constance’s case set off a storm of publicity and she appeared on numerous news and television shows including CNN, CBS News, and The Ellen Degeneres Show. Constance was also named Glamour Magazine’s 2010 Woman of the Year and was Grand Marshall in New York City’s Gay Pride March.
Christine is Senior Counsel for the ACLU. Christine graduated with honors from NYU School of Law in 1998 where she was editor of the NYU Law Review. She also clerked for Judge Robert L. Carter, former NAACP General Counsel who argued Brown v. Board of Education. Christine also helped write the North Carolina anti-bullying legislation that was passed in 2010. She has represented many high profile clients, including Constance McMillen. In June of 2010, Christine was named one of “The Best LGBT attorneys under 40” by the LGBT Bar Association.
Dan is the Regional Director for GetEQUAL, a national LGBTQ rights organization that utilizes many tools to work for equality, including nonviolent civil disobedience. He has been arrested several times for utilizing civil disobedience, most notably in 2010 when he chained himself to the White House Fence in protest of the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy with other activists including Robin McGehee and Dan Choi. Dan also participated with other activists in openly challenging President Obama’s lack of leadership on DADT when he and five others heckled Obama at a fundraiser in April of 2010.