George Stallings, Jr.
Umoja, 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?
No, but I support one of the fundamental underlying principles of same-sex marriage. I do believe that domestic partners deserve to share health benefits. If, however, a Council majority, or the citizens through the ballot pass a same-sex marriages initiative, I will oppose any efforts by Congress to repeal it.
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. Home rule requires that our laws and practices be respected and not usurped by Congress. Any law that we, the District's citizens, or our elected officials support should not be undemocratically overruled by Congress.
3. Do you oppose efforts by Congress or other parties to outlaw or restrict adoptions by unmarried couples in the District of Columbia?
Yes, for the same reasons I indicated in question 2.
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, for the same reasons I indicated in question 2.
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?
Yes. The Office of Human Rights has a four-year backlog of cases and its highest ranking employee is a paralegal. I support a Cabinet-level agency not necessarily with additional staffing, but with adequate staffing.
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. When in the District, organizations such as these should follow District law.
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. The Armstrong Amendment unfairly discriminates against gay and lesbian organizations.
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, for the same reasons I indicated in question 2, but also because fighting homophobia should begin with our youth.
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. I believe the Council should end-run the Control Board by making tough love decisions long before the Control Board does.
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?
I will see to it that our health agencies comply with the maintenance of effort clause. It is bad enough that there is fiscal mismanagement in general, but when it affects health programs which are the difference between life and death for our residents, it is criminal. No agencies should be held more accountable than our health agencies, and it is high time that public health becomes a priority. This is why I support the University of the District of Columbia as a four-year university. I would like to see a School of Public Health established at UDC.
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?
Yes, only a Jesse Helms wouldn't.
12. Do you support the condom availability programs that have been established in the District's public schools and prisons?
It is irresponsible to think that abstinence will become the popular norm overnight, if at all. If there is sexual activity, there should be condom availability.
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?
To enact zero tolerance without establishing a Police Conduct Review Board is fascist. The consequent increase in arrests for minor offenses that zero tolerance enforces cannot go unchecked. The police cannot police themselves.
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 particularly support the efforts of GLOV. The insensitivity of some of our public safety employees has been swept under the rug for far too long.
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?
Yes. Adults should have free choice. It is apparent that the ABC Board is discriminating against the gay community.
[Signed]
George Augustus Stallings, Jr.