WASHINGTON — The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay rights lobbying organization, announced on Tuesday it has begun its search for an executive director to replace Cheryl Jacques. HRC officials said they hope to fill the position by this spring. Jacques resigned after less than one year over unidentified philosophical differences with the group’s board of directors. HRC Board Co-Chair Gwen Baba and HRC Foundation Co-Chair Vic Basile will lead the search. “There is tremendous enthusiasm for this position of leadership in our community and beyond,” Basile said in the release. “There is an understanding that leading HRC is a unique and special role in our movement.” Baba and Basile said they will not release the names of the people on the search committee, but said it does include three staff members. Staff complaints about Jacques’ abrasive management style were said to have been among the factors that led to her departure. HRC has denied that the November election results, or HRC’s aggressive “George W. Bush: You’re Fired!” campaign factored into Jacques and the board parting ways.

High court in Montana rules in favor of gay partner benefits
HELENA, Mont. — Gay and lesbian partners of employees in the Montana university system have the same right to health insurance benefits as those given to partners of heterosexual workers, the Montana Supreme Court ruled last week, according to the Helena Independent Record. The equal protection clause of the state’s constitution guarantees gays the same benefits, Justice Jim Regnier said in the 4-3 opinion, which overturned a lower court’s decision, the Record reported. “I am ecstatic,” Missoula resident Carol Snetsinger, a plaintiff in the case, told the newspaper. The ruling affects employers who offer benefits to unmarried heterosexual couples; Montana universities give health benefits to married couples and to unmarried opposite-sex couples who sign an affidavit of common-law marriage, the Record reported.

Kansas voters may decide anti-gay marriage measure
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas legislators plan to put before voters on April 5 the question of whether the state constitution should be changed to ban same-sex marriage, the Lawrence Journal World reported. “The possibility of an April vote is very possible,” Rev. Terry Fox, senior pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church of Wichita and a leader of the proposal against gay unions, told the Journal World. Some legislators want to put a ban on gay marriage at the top of lawmakers’ agenda when they go into session Jan. 10, the newspaper reported. “We are planning on trying to get that before the Senate and out the first couple of weeks of the session,” Senate President-elect Steve Morris (R-Hugoton), who supports a ban, told the Journal World. But House Speaker Doug Mays told the newspaper that lawmakers likely cannot act fast enough to get the ban on the spring ballot. “That’s about impossible,” Mays, a Republican, told the Journal World.

Anti-gay activists target Calif. judge with recall
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Opponents of same-sex marriage want to recall a Sacramento Superior Court judge who late last year upheld domestic partner laws, according to a Copley News Service report. Activists want to put pressure on judges statewide in the battle against gay unions, news reports indicate. The recall effort against Judge Loren McMaster comes as many state lawmakers try to balance public sentiment against same-sex marriage with extending legal rights to gay couples, the news service reported. “This is to call attention to what the silent majority is up against in terms of the attack on family values,” Tony Andrade told Copley. James M. Mize, president of the California Association of Judges, said that if McMaster is removed, “Honorable judges who make rulings appropriately based on law would eventually all be recalled,” according to Copley.

Rehnquist defends lifetime job security for judges
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, ailing from thyroid cancer, defended lifetime appointments for judges as necessary to insulate them from pressures as they deal with politically sensitive issues. Rehnquist used his year-end report Jan. 1 to address concerns about so-called activist judges and Congress’ move to strip judges of some of their authority. Rehnquist said that there has been “mounting criticism” recently of judges accused of interpreting the law to fit their politics. Bush and Republican congressional leaders have been particularly outspoken about activist judges, especially those in gay marriage cases. Rehnquist said that judges should not be punished by Congress because of their decisions and that their lifetime tenure protects their independence.