1998 Questionnaire for Mayoral Candidates
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: 1998.
August, 1998
QUESTIONNAIRE FOR MAYORAL CANDIDATES
Part I. Conduct of Office
1. What lessons have you drawn from your own mistakes and the mistakes of others that will help you facilitate a speedy return of home rule powers if you are elected Mayor?
2. As Mayor, will you actively lobby the Control Board for reforms in management, oversight, and budgets, even for agencies and departments over which you will have no formal control for much of your term?
3. Gay and lesbian community leaders were heavily involved in the recent search process that led to the selection of a new Police Chief. Will you ensure that lesbians and gay men will be similarly involved in any search for new heads for the police department, health department, the Agency for HIV-AIDS, and other agencies of particular interest to our community?
Part II. Public Safety
4. What will you do to improve the often-strained relations between the various public safety agencies (police, fire department, corrections) and the District’s gay and lesbian community?
5. The federalization and privatization of the functions of the Department of Corrections have often resulted in the placement of D.C. prisoners in facilities that have no condom availability programs. To the extent possible, do you favor requiring private contractors to provide condom availability programs similar to those that have been in effect in D.C. facilities, and will you lobby federal and state prison officials to adopt similar programs in facilities where D.C. prisoners are housed?
6. Do you support passage and full funding for the new civilian complaint review system to be established by Bill 12-521, the “Office of Citizen Complaint Review Establishment Act of 1998”?
7. Do you support Bill 12-612, the “Opened Alcoholic Beverage Containers Amendment Act of 1998” (a.k.a. the “Chardonnay Lady Bill”), that would allow people to drink alcoholic beverages on their own porches without fear of arrest?
8. Will you veto any legislation similar to the recently-defeated Bill 12-279, the “Arrest Without Warrant by Law Enforcement Officers Amendment Act of 1997,” that would expand the right of police officers to arrest people for “quality of life” offenses on mere hearsay and without warrants?
Part III. AIDS and Other Public Health Issues
9. Do you support Initiative 59 (or similar legislation) to legalize the use of medical marijuana when a patient’s doctor recommends it as a means to combat some of the effects of AIDS, cancer, and other diseases?
10. What will you do to combat the persistent failure of District health agencies to spend their full appropriated local funds to combat AIDS? Do you agree that these agencies should be required to monitor all their grant funding?
11. What will you propose as strategies for promoting AIDS-related education and services for underserved and high-risk populations?
12. The New York State Legislature recently passed legislation saying that: (1) doctors must report the names of people who test positive for HIV to public health officials; and that (2) health workers must attempt to have infected patients identify their sex or drug-use partners and then must notify those partners of possible exposure. Such measures are invariably counter-productive and discourage those most at risk from being tested and treated for HIV. Will you oppose any such legislation in the District, vetoing it if necessary?
13. Do you support an increase in District government funding to combat AIDS in line with the continuing increase in the caseload?
14. Do you support continued District government funding for the needle exchange program to combat the spread of AIDS? Will you actively resist Congressional efforts to end such funding?
Part IV. Curbing Regulatory Abuse
15. In an apparent effort to bolster his standing with some segments of the District community, the recently-ousted chief of the Department of Consumer & Regulatory Affairs, David Watts, instituted a zoning regulation earlier this year barring video stores from deriving more than 15% of their revenues from sexually-oriented videos. Do you agree that this attack on the rights of adult consumers is utterly unwarranted and that there should be no limits on the proportion of video store revenues derived from adult videos?
16. Will you support legislation to reauthorize and regulate the issuance of liquor licenses to establishments (in designated nonresidential commercial districts) that want to offer nude dancing as entertainment?
Part V. Defending Our Families
17. Do you support legal recognition of marriages between partners of the same sex?
18. Will you lobby Congress to overturn the current Congressional restrictions on the District’s funding of the D.C. Health Care Benefits Expansion Act of 1992?
19. Do you support the current District policy, sanctioned by a court ruling, of allowing adoptions by unmarried couples? Will you actively resist Congressional efforts to outlaw such adoptions in the District?
Part VI. Upholding the D.C. Human Rights Law
20. Will you propose the reestablishment of the Office of Human Rights (OHR) as an independent, Cabinet-level agency whose Director has direct access to the Mayor? If the Control Board fails to act on this proposal, will you submit an appropriate reorganization plan for Council approval when your powers are restored?
21. Do you favor an increased budget for OHR so that its heavy case backlog can be eliminated?
22. Will you propose legislation that would codify OHR’s current practice of granting top priority to discrimination complaints from those afflicted with AIDS or other imminently life-shortening conditions?
23. Do you agree that District government agencies are indeed covered by the D.C. Human Rights Act of 1977?
Part VII. Education & Youth
24. Proposals for establishing a system of vouchers for private schools, whether here or elsewhere around the country, would funnel taxpayer dollars to religious schools controlled by denominations that frequently are aggressively homophobic. Will you oppose any legislation authorizing vouchers for religious schools?
25. How do you propose to improve District government services for gay and lesbian youth?
Your answers should be typed on separate paper rather than on this form. You must sign your name on your answer sheets to indicate your personal commitment to your answers. This questionnaire must be received by Friday, October 9 by GLAA, Attn: Craig Howell/Elections Coordinator, P. O. Box 75265, Washington, D.C. 20013-5265. FAX submissions are acceptable. In addition to your signed hard copy, please submit an electronic copy (emailed or on IBM-format diskette, in any major word processor or text format) for loading on GLAA's web site.