For fiercely defending “preyed upon” groups and for their work against other civil-rights abuses, Gov. Bill Ritter and Roz Duman received the Anti-Defamation League’s 2009 Civil Rights Awards on Tuesday.
The award, in its 27th year, has a list of heavyweight past recipients, including former Colorado Supreme Court Justice and U.S. District Judge Jim Carrigan, U.S. District Senior Judge John L. Kane and former Mayor Federico Peña.
Accepting the award, Ritter praised the ADL for backing him after he was disparaged for supporting Senate Bill 200, which expanded fair housing laws to target discrimination based on “sexual orientation.”
He said he received more than 3,000 phone calls from across the country accusing him of allowing sexual predators into schools and public housing. The religious organization Focus on the Family coordinated the phone campaign, he said.
“It’s not funny that there are groups in this state that turned this into a campaign of hatred,” he said animatedly. “This social fracturing is wrong, and we’ve got to stand up against it. The ADL was there for me.”
He also said proudly that Colorado was the first state to reject a statewide referendum, Amendment 46, to abolish affirmative-action laws. Similar measures have passed in California, Michigan and Washington.
“We can’t remain quiet and ambivalent when people are victimized or preyed upon because of their race, their gender or their sexual orientation,” he said to applause.
Duman was an aide to former U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder and former Mayor Wellington Webb and now is coordinator of the Coalition for Genocide Awareness and Action.
She spoke of the United Nations’ pledge of “never again” following the Holocaust of World War II, only to watch genocides occur in Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda and, now, in the Sudan, where it is estimated that 10,000 deaths occur every month.
“Man is so minuscule within the universe but is the pinnacle of creation,” she told the crowd of 100 gathered for lunch at the Marriott City Center.
“I created the coalition in 2006 to challenge society to stop all genocides present and in the future.”
She then thanked the crowd for helping her to heal from the death of her husband last fall and her daughter’s successful surgery. She said she received notification of the ADL award just hours after she learned that her daughter’s tumor was benign.
“It takes a village to help someone through hard times. Thank you,” she said to a standing ovation.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
