Shutt participates in panel prior to presidential forum
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CARLINA – Employment law attorney Nekki Shutt participated, along with six other prominent South Carolinians, in a town hall discussion at Winthrop University.
The discussion, titled “The New South: Shifting Cultural Norms,” was one of several programs planned at the university in advance of that night’s Democratic presidential forum.
South Carolina’s Feb. 27 primary is the first in the region in 2016, which is why the Rock Hill forum was held.
The panel in which Shutt participated was organized by South Carolina state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, who also serves as chair of the Democratic National Committee Southern Caucus. It addressed four issues: race, equality, the environment and youth. Shutt spoke on the issue of LGBT equality and shifting public and legal attitudes on the subject during the past 30 years.
Other panelists:
- The Rev. Ralph Warnock, Ebenezer Baptist Church
- The Rev. William Barber, organizer of the North Carolina Moral Monday movement
- Laura Cahue, partner of Somos SC and Young Immigrants in Action
- Scott Hamilton, political science professor and director of the Winthrop Poll
- Louis Elrod, president of Young Democrats of America
Shutt, a certified labor and employment law specialist, was invited to join the panel because of her active role in the state’s marriage equality movement. She, along with Burnette Shutt & McDaniel colleagues M. Malissa Burnette and Jax Pavlicek, were integral parts of the legal team that led to the end of South Carolina’s ban on same-sex marriage.