The Embarcadero Room at the Holiday Inn on the Bay was the setting for this year’s Freedom Banquet, the annual celebration of GLBT achievements put on by the San Diego Democratic Club (SDDC). The top honoree this year, receiving the A. Brad Truax Human Rights Award, was Carole Migden, chair of the State Board of Equalization. Other honorees included Gracia Molina de Pick, Amanda Watson, the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, Fentress Ott and Stephen Whitburn, who received the President’s Award, the only award announced the night of the event.

Looking back over the last year, SDDC President Jess Durfee celebrated several legislative and judicial decisions: the Supreme Court decision on sodomy laws; the passage of AB205 the most sweeping domestic partnership legislation in the nation; and locally, the amendment of the Human Dignity Ordinance to include protections for transgender people.

Last week, the State Board of Equalization, chaired by Migden, passed new property tax rules, effective immediately, stating that registered domestic partners are protected from state reassessment of property inherited upon the death of a partner. Prior to the change, domestic partners routinely faced prohibitively high increases in property taxes when their homes were automatically reassessed after the death of a partner. It was one of the rights not granted to domestic partners under AB 205.

Migden also helped lay the groundwork for AB 205 when she wrote legislation passed in 1999 that established the domestic partnership registry.

“I think it’s a terrific equality issue for the community,” said about the passage of AB 205. “Increasingly we have to let people know about it, that you download from the Secretary of State a form, you pay ten dollars and folks can be united in what is the strongest domestic partnership legislation in the United States of America. Moreover, the legislature passed it; it wasn’t directed by the judiciary.”

On the subject of the referendum push by Senator Pete Knight seeking to block AB 205 from being enacted in 2005, she added, “We’ll fight them on the land, we will fight them in the sea and we will fight them in the air. We’re going to prevail and we will be out there in defense of our work, our legislation and our rights. I am not very worried about it.”

Leaders of the SDDC are looking towards the future, with major elections coming up next year at the local, state and national levels.

“Obviously, right away we are going to be seeing what we need to do with this referendum around [AB] 205. If that ends up being on the ballot that is going to be our priority race,” Durfee said. “Beyond that we are going to be working hard for our endorsed candidates, which include Howard Dean, Chris Kehoe, Vince Hall and Toni Atkins.”

The SDDC meets on the fourth Thursday of every month, but meetings will not be held in November or December due to conflicts with the holidays. To learn more about SDDC or to get involved, visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to their web site.