WASHINGTON (AP) – Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers went on record favoring equal civil rights for gays and lesbians when she ran for Dallas City Council, and she said the city had a responsibility to pay for AIDS education and patient services.

But Miers opposed repeal of the Texas sodomy statute – a law later overturned by the court on which she will sit if confirmed – in a survey she filled out for a gay-rights group during her successful 1989 campaign.

The survey by the Lesbian/Gay Coalition of Dallas provides a hint of Miers’ thinking on gay rights issues that could come before the court. Although she came to a coalition meeting to answer questions during the campaign, she said at the time that she was not seeking its endorsement.

The Supreme Court struck down the prohibition on consensual gay sex in 2003 on a 6-3 vote. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, whom Miers is nominated to replace, voted with the majority.

Louise Young, a founding member of the coalition, which later merged with another group, remembered when Miers came to the organization’s screening of council candidates.

“We weren’t really pleased with her responses, although they weren’t all bad,” Young said. “I just wondered why she was here, because she didn’t seem to be the typical officeholder who was supportive of our equal rights.”

Miers answered “Yes” to the survey question, “Do you believe that gay men and lesbians should have the same civil rights as non-gay men and women?”

She was noncommittal on several other questions, saying, for example, that she would be willing to discuss the need for a law prohibiting discrimination in housing or public accommodations against people who had AIDS or were HIV-positive.

Asked whether qualified candidates should be denied city employment because they are gay or lesbian, she said, “I believe that employers should be able to pick the best qualified person for any position to be filled considering all relevant factors.”

She answered “No” without elaboration when asked whether she believed, both as a citizen and a legislator, that criminalization of the private sexual behavior of consenting adult lesbians and gays should be taken out of the Texas criminal code.

She said Dallas had a responsibility in AIDS education and treatment and that she favored more money being spent in that area “assuming need and resources. I do consider the AIDS illness as a serious total community problem.” She underlined “total.”

“Usually, if you bothered to come, you wanted our endorsement,” Young said. “She came to talk to us anyway. I thought that was very odd.”

Young added, “She didn’t seem like a right-wing nut or anything like that.”

Miers checked off a box on the survey saying she was not seeking the group’s endorsement. Young said she did not recall Miers taking anti-gay or pro-gay positions during her 1989-91 term.