Miers backed equal rights for gays. "I don't know where her life journey has taken her since 1989," said Louise Young, a founding member of the Lesbian/Gay Coalition of Dallas. "She never did anything anti-gay. But you never know where people go in the political spectrum over the years." Miers filled out a survey from the group in her successful campaign for the city council in which she favored equal civil rights for gays and said the city had a responsibility to pay for AIDS education and patient services. She opposed repeal of the Texas sodomy statute — a law later overturned by the court on which she will sit if confirmed. On gay rights, her responses to the questionnaire are a paradox. Still, a leading gay-rights group credits her with an open mind. "It's only a small window into her thinking," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, "but it certainly, for me, raises the possibility that she's more fair-minded than our opponents are hoping." The question on civil rights on the old survey did not pin respondents down on any of the issues typically associated with gay equality today, such as domestic partner benefits or same-sex unions. Kelly Shackelford, president of the socially conservative Free Market Foundation, played down the significance of Miers' answer, saying he, too, could have answered yes to it. Shackelford credited her with "basic Texas down-home values." Solmonese said the fact Miers even came to a meeting of a Dallas gay and lesbian group to answer its questions suggested a wish to reach out. "She's pro-family but not condemnatory," said Judge Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court, who has known Miers for 30 years and has dated her.