Tom Hamilton
Democrat, Ward 6
Candidate for Ward 6 DC CouncilmemberSpecial Election: April 29, 1997
Response to GLAA 1997 Questionnaire
for Ward 6 DC Council Candidates
1. Do you support legal recognition of marriages between persons of the same sex?
Yes. Marriage is sacred. Denying this sacred rite to any person is totally unacceptable.
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?
Yes. For the same reason as stated above.
3. Do you oppose efforts by Congress or other parties to outlaw or restrict adoptions by unmarried couples in the District of Columbia?
Yes. A lesbian couple living around the corner from me adopted a baby girl several years ago. That child is obviously happy, healthy, and loved. To deny those parents the opportunity to raise her, and to deny her the opportunity to be raised in a caring and loving environment, is unconscionable.
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?
Yes, although I would prefer a law that actually recognizes same-sex marriage.
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?
I certainly believe that the Office of Human Rights must be separated from the Office of Minority Business Enterprise [sic]. Reestablishing a separate, cabinet-level office sounds logical. I have not studied the issue, however, and might be open to other proposals, should any be forthcoming, to maximize the office's effectiveness.
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?
Yes, and so ruled Charles Ruff when he was Chief Corporation Counsel. I run a tutoring program for elementary school students and I am responsible for recruiting tutors. My only recruitment criteria are that tutors be responsible adults who care.
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?
Yes, for both moral and legal reasons. Every institution in D.C. is protected by D.C. laws and regulations. No institution can selectively choose which laws it will follow any more than the government can decide which laws it will enforce.
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?
Yes, and the obvious reason is that we have to understand one another - or at least respect our differences - if we are to get along. But another reason is analogous to the irrational reluctance to teach sex education in schools. The education that our kids get in the streets is invariably inferior - and is often harmful.
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 gencies and workers?
Yes. This has been one of the major themes of my campaign. That is why I am amazed that two candidates are running on their 'outstanding' records of insider government service. One candidate touts her remarkable gifts with goverment finance - which presumably got us where we are today. She also emphasizes her oversight role, while in fact she oversaw the very destruction of our government. But then, these are peculiar times.
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?
Our streets are riddled with potholes, yet the District returns millions of dollars in federal transportation money because it is so mismanaged that it doesn't know how to spend it. Our schools are failing, yet the National Science Foundation took back millions of dollars in grant money because the District could not come up with a viable plan to spend them. The list goes on and on. There are some knowledgeable individuals who truly believe that, if the D.C. government knew how to spend the money it has, it would not need additional funds. Yet we are deeply in debt. That is how bad it is. We must totally restructure this government, bring professional management to this government, and redefine our relationship with the federal government. I am the only candidate saying that. The others seem to believe that our government is a pretty good car in need of a tune up. They are wrong. Our government is a lemon, and it's time to turn it in.
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?
This strikes me as a no brainer. Of course. Doctors prescribe more dangerous and more addictive drugs all the time. I suspect that if President Clinton had cancer or AIDS, and his doctor prescribed marijuana, he might decide to inhale this time.
12. Do you support the condom availability programs that have been established in the District's public schools and prisons?
Yes. Only the naive believe that it is enough to just say "No" and only the cruel are willing to let the young and the entrapped suffer the hideous consequences of unsafe sex.
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?
We need more creative solutions to our problems than simply trying to reinstate old programs. The old Civilian Review Board [sic] was woefully inadequate long before it was abolished. I will introduce a bill to establish a trust fund, funded by a special attorney's fee (there are a fair number of wealthy attorneys in this town). The fund can only be used for a newly constituted Civilian Review Board, and the board itself will have authority for hiring its own executive director and staff. Yes we must bring back civilian review. But not the way it was.
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?
Yes. I went through Army-sponsored racial sensitivity training that proved extremely interesting and rewarding, even for those of us - perhaps especially for those of us - who thought we were pretty sensitive already. (The military isn't there yet on gay and lesbian sensitivity, but it's got to come.) And while this training is especially important for public safety employees, I think it should be required of all public employees.
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?
I have long proposed establishing Business Investment Districts in our commercial corridors, where local businesses take greater responsibility for the maintenance of security, order, and the environment. If these establishments are willing to take on their share of these responsibilities, and if the overall result is positive, then my Midwestern, Puritan upbringing should not be allowed to get in the way.
[Signed]
Tom Hamilton
Apirl 8, 1997