[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 37 (Tuesday, April 5, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E527-E528]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          SUN CHRONICLE HAILS APPOINTMENT OF ATTLEBORO NATIVE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BARNEY FRANK

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 5, 2005

  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, since 1982, my Congressional 
activities have been covered by the Sun Chronicle, which provides news 
for the Greater Attleboro, Massachusetts area. It is a newspaper which 
understands the importance of solid and thoughtful coverage of events 
that happen within its area. At the same time, it pays due attention to 
national issues, and it has also been an important advocate for fair 
treatment for that part of Massachusetts in which it circulates.
  Its interest in all three of these elements came together on March 18 
when the Sun Chronicle published a gracious and thoughtful editorial 
about the appointment of an Attleboro native, Joe Solmonese, to be the 
head of the Human Rights Campaign. The Human Rights Campaign is a major 
voice for fair treatment for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered 
people, and I am among those who was very pleased that Mr. Solmonese 
was selected, given the combination of skill and talent that he brings 
to the job.
  As the Sun Chronicle noted, ``Attleboro is honored by the appointment 
of a city native to head the Human Rights Campaign'' and it is also 
honored and fortunate to have a newspaper with the generosity of spirit 
to editorialize as well as it did on this subject. I ask that this 
editorial be printed here.

                [From the Sun Chronicle, March 18, 2005]

                       Activist Eyes Tough Fight

                            (By David Crary)

       New York.--After 12 years advocating for abortion rights, 
     Attleboro native Joe Solmonese might have opted for a less 
     divisive field of work. Instead, he is taking over leadership 
     of the largest national gay-rights group at a time when the 
     same-sex marriage debate rivals abortion for volatility and 
     virulence.
       ``My challenge is to talk about why the equality we seek is 
     not just important to our community, but should be important 
     to everyone,'' Solmonese said. ``I have to believe in the 
     optimism and fair-mindedness of the American people.''
       Solmonese was named last week as the new president of the 
     Washington-based Human Rights Campaign and will formally 
     assume the post April 11.
       He plans to start his tenure by traveling around the 
     country, meeting with state and local activists.
       Since 1993, Solmonese has been a strategist for EMILY's 
     List, a political action committee supporting state and 
     federal candidacies of Democratic women who favor abortion 
     rights. He was its chief executive for the past 2\1/2\ years, 
     helping break fund-raising records but also seeing candidates 
     his group endorsed lose 2004 Senate races in Florida, South 
     Carolina and Missouri.
       Solmonese, 40, graduated from Boston University with a 
     degree in communications after growing up in Attleboro. One 
     of his role models was the local congressman, Barney Frank--
     who disclosed his homosexuality in 1987 when openly gay 
     politicians were almost unheard of.
       ``Barney Frank is an incredibly heroic person, but also 
     someone who is absolutely in touch with his constituency,'' 
     Solmonese said in a telephone interview. ``He's a man who 
     values family more than anyone I know.''
       Solmonese came out as gay in his early 20s; he recalls 
     attending a Human Rights Campaign dinner when he was 22. 
     Before joining EMILY's List, he was an aide to former 
     Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis and a fund-raiser for 
     Frank.
       He credits his parents, both schoolteachers, with inspiring 
     him to pursue a career of political activism. Solmonese 
     Elementary School in Norton is named after his father, 
     Joseph.
       ``After a decade in the reproductive rights movement, I see 
     myself having been in the fight for a progressive America,'' 
     he said. ``Groups like the HRC are very much at the forefront 
     of that fight.''
       Another common denominator for the abortion-rights and gay 
     rights movements is their determined and politically well-
     connected opposition. Conservative leaders who focus on those 
     two issues have claimed credit for the Republicans' strong 
     showing in the 2004 election.
       ``The American people fear a whole range of things right 
     now, from terrorism to their economic future,'' Solmonese 
     said. ``Our opposition has been pretty crafty at capitalizing 
     on that fear, using whatever means necessary to make 
     political gains.''
       Many conservative groups are now waging a two-pronged fight 
     against gay marriage. They are lobbying Congress to approve a 
     federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the 
     union of a man and a woman; they also hope many more states 
     will join the 17 that already have amended their 
     constitutions to ban gay marriage.
       The Human Rights Campaign was among numerous gay-rights 
     organizations participating earlier this month in a strategy 
     session aimed at competing effectively in upcommg state 
     ballot campaigns regarding gay marriage.
       Solmonese says he hopes Massachusetts will demonstrate to 
     Americans nationwide that its pioneering legalization of 
     same-sex marriage has positive, not negative, results. 
     ``Massachusetts is still there, with loving, committed 
     families going on with their lives and experiencing the same 
     rights and responsibilities that all Americans do,'' he said. 
     ``We want to shine a light on what happened in Massachusetts, 
     and tell the American people who we truly are.''
       He replaces another Massachusetts political activist, 
     former state Sen. Cheryl Jacques, who stepped down as HRC 
     president late last year, citing differences with its board.
       Her departure coincided with speculation in the gay media, 
     and elsewhere, about discord among the HRC and some other 
     major gay-rights groups. Solmonese said he has detected no 
     serious rifts since his hiring was announced.
                                  ____


                [From the Sun Chronicle, Mar. 18, 2005]

                 Attleboro Honored by Another Activist

       Attleboro is honored by the appointment of a city native to 
     head the Human Rights Campaign--the nation's largest gay 
     civil rights group--and just days prior to a welcome 
     loosening on the West Coast of the bans on same-sex marriage.
       Joe Solmonese, 40, who is gay, brings to his new role a 
     history of activism that began when he became student council 
     vice president while a junior at Attleboro High School in the 
     early 1980s.

[[Page E528]]

       He later held an internship at the Statehouse while 
     attending Boston University, then worked on successful 
     reelection campaigns, first for Gov. Michael Dukakis and then 
     U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Newton. He worked on a Senate 
     campaign in Oregon, as well.
       Solmonese succeeds former Sen. Cheryl Jacques, who stepped 
     down from her Attleboro-area district to lead the Human 
     Rights Campaign in January 2004. She resigned Nov. 30.
       Solmonese, whose mother and sister live in Attleboro, took 
     the helm just days before a trial court judge in California 
     ruled on March 14 against that state's same-sex marriage ban, 
     calling it unconstitutional and comparing it to archaic 
     segregation laws.
       It's a ruling that resonates in Massachusetts, which has 
     been in the vanguard of the struggle for equality.
       It was the first in the nation, in November 2003, to give 
     gay men and lesbians the same access to marriage licenses as 
     heterosexual couples.
       Solmonese' predecessor, Jacques, married her longtime 
     partner in August in Boston, days after she addressed the 
     Democratic National Convention calling for ``marriage 
     equality.'' The couple were wed under Massachusetts' high 
     court historic decision, a decision that was long overdue 
     here and continues to be elsewhere.
       Appeals are certain in California. But each step forward 
     brings closer what surely will be the eventual right of gays 
     and lesbians across the country to attain equal footing in 
     the eyes of the law.
       We congratulate Joe Solmonese, whose father, Joseph, was 
     principal of Norton High School for several years until his 
     death, as he sets out across the country to carry his 
     message.
       ``We seek the same rights and responsibilities as all other 
     Americans,'' Solmonese said, upon his appointment. ``Our job 
     is to educate the American people as to what equality 
     means.''

                          ____________________