Questionnaire for DC Council Candidates In Ward 6 Special Election
Election Day: April 29, 1997
NOTE: Before you complete and return your questionnaire, you should call us to request a Briefing on the issues we have raised. These briefings typically last about an hour. Call us on (202)667-5139 to schedule your briefing. Also be sure to read through GLAA's Agenda: 1996, as well as the 1997 Supplement.
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1. Do you support legal recognition of marriages between persons of the same sex?
2. Will you oppose efforts by Congress or other parties to stop the District of Columbia from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in Hawaii or other places?
3. Do you oppose efforts by Congress or other parties to outlaw or restrict adoptions by unmarried couples in the District of Columbia?
4. If Congress ever repeals the D.C. Health Care Benefits Expansion Act of 1992 that established the registration of domestic partnerships, will you vote to reenact the same law?
5. As a member of the Committee on Government Operations, you would have oversight responsibilities for enforcement of the D.C. Human Rights Law of 1977. Do you support the reestablishment of the Office of Human Rights as an independent, adequately-staffed, Cabinet-level agency whose Director has direct access to the Mayor?
6. Do you agree that the Boy Scouts of America is violating the D.C. Human Rights Law's ban on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation by excluding gays from participating either as scouts or as leaders?
7. Will you vote to repeal the Armstrong Amendment, which allows religiously-affiliated private educational institutions in the District to discriminate against student clubs that promote equal rights for lesbians and gay men?
8. Will you oppose efforts by Congress or other parties to abolish or restrict the right of our public school students to form clubs that promote greater understanding between gays and others?
9. Do you agree that our own elected officials, past and present, bear much of the responsibility for the District's current financial plight because of their reluctance to make tough budgetary decisions, to establish priorities, and to demand maximum efficiency and productivity (rather than political loyalty) from all District government agencies and workers?
10. As a member of the Committee on Human Services, you would have oversight responsibilities in the public health struggles against AIDS and breast cancer. It has recently been revealed that the District failed to spend $1 million of its own appropriated funds to combat AIDS in the last fiscal year, jeopardizing our city's federal funding from the Ryan White Act and contributing to the District's failure to award a contract for an effective needle exchange program. What will you do to safeguard against such bureaucratic bumbling by our health agencies?
11. Do you support the legalization of the medical use of marijuana when a patient's doctor recommends it as a means to combat the effects of AIDS, cancer, and other diseases when more conventional treatments for alleviating symptoms fail?
12. Do you support the condom availability programs that have been established in the District's public schools and prisons?
13. In 1995, the Council summarily abolished the Civilian Complaint Review Board, thereby allowing the Metropolitan Police Depoartment to handle all public complaints about excessive use of force or abusive language by the police. Last year the Council failed to enact the Police Conduct Review Board Act of 1995, to establish an improved system for civilian review of such complaints against the police; the Council claimed there were no funds for establishing the new board. Will you vote to establish and fund the Police Conduct Review Board for FY 1998?
14. Do you support sensitivity and community relations training for all elements of our public safety system (police, fire department, etc.) that includes strong recognition of gay and lesbian community concerns, so that the District will never again tolerate the kind of insensitivity and incompetence reflected in the Fire Department's handling of the Tyra Hunter case and similar incidents?
15. Will you support legislation to authorize and regulate the issuance of liquor licenses to establishments (in designated nonresidential commercial districts) that want to offer nude dancing as entertainment?
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Please feel free to send us any copies of speeches, documents, campaign literature, or anything else that might illustrate your record on gay and lesbian issues.
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Your answers should be written on separate sheets of paper rather than on this form. You must sign your name on each sheet to indicate your personal commitment to your answers. Please return this questionnaire by Thursday, April 10, to GLAA, Attn: Craig Howell/Elections Coordinator, P.O. Box 75265, Washington, D.C. 20013-5265. FAX submissions are acceptable; call us on (202)667-5139 to make arrangements. We cannot accept e-mail transmissions.