Forums are set for the coming "Celebrate Free Speech: Lobbying Days 2000," including "The First Amendment - Who Needs It, And Why," for day one on May 7. The forum will be held at the Radisson Hotel in Sacramento.
Co-sponsored by the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) and the national Against Censorship Together (A.C.T.), the community forum is aimed at getting the public at large to be more aware of First Amendment issues. "The idea behind the whole kind of public thing," said FSC lobbyist Kat Sunlove, "is to try and bring to the public some of the issues that people deal with in doing their job and their work, a whole range of kinds of jobs, that the First Amendment has an effect on. The speakers come from a range of backgrounds, from journalists to educators, and I want each speaker to talk about how their work intersects with First Amendment issues."
Scheduled speakers include Anthony Weeks, director of the Coro Foundation's Fellows program in public affairs; Carol Queen, author, sex educator, and FSC board member; author and Center for Investigative Reporting staff writer Stephen Levine; Dana Mitchell, a consultant to the California Senate Judiciary Committee; David Green, executive director of the First Amendment Project; and, Terry Francke, general counsel to the California First Amentment Coalition.
Bobby Lilly, former director of Californians Against Censorship Together (Cal-A.C.T.), will moderate the forum. Sunlove said that there was a possibility Weeks might not make the forum, in which case she was considering asking veteran adult film star Nina Hartley to take his place on the panel.
The May 7 forum, which is scheduled to last from 3-6 p.m., will begin with an hour-long celebrity reception featuring some of the adult industry's leading lights, including Hartley, Juli Ashton, Annie Sprinkle, Christi Lake, Devinn Lane, Dave Cummings, LaSara Firefox, and Sunlove. Tickets for the reception are $15, with the proceeds going to the two nonprofit free speech groups co-sponsoring the forum.
Asked about any expected general republic response, Sunlove said a better advertising budget for this year's Celebrate Free Speech event is helping somewhat. "I hope it's very good," she said of the potential response. "I'm hoping for forty to fifty people from the general public."
For more information on both Celebrate Free Speech: Lobbying Days 2000 and the Free Speech Coalition in general, contact Kat Sunlove at [email protected].
