Claim Against DNC Moves Forward

The Washington Blade reports:

A courtroom showdown between the Democratic National Committee and its former gay outreach director, Donald Hitchcock, is likely to occur next year. Hitchcock was fired from his DNC post in 2006, shortly after his domestic partner, Paul Yandura, wrote an open letter to gay Democrats urging them to withhold donations to the party because he felt Dean wasn’t doing enough to combat anti-gay state ballot initiatives.

Hitchcock later filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Dean and the DNC alleging, among other things, anti-gay discrimination. The DNC has denied the claims. Final efforts at mediation failed in September and a pretrial conference has been set for Jan. 5. Alan Kabat, an attorney for Hitchcock, said the trial date will not be set until the completion of that conference. He said the actual date would depend on the judge’s calendar as well as the calendars of attorneys for both sides.