GLAA submits Tyra Hunter petitions to Mayor Williams
[Note: At the first meeting of Mayor Anthony Williams' Gay/Lesbian Advisory Council on June 21, 1999, GLAA Public Safety Chair Rick Rosendall presented the Mayor with the following transmittal letter and approximately 550 signatures on a petition for the city to end its challenge to the jury verdict in the Hunter case. Rosendall had alerted the Mayor to the petition effort a few weeks earlier in an email message, in which he included the text of the petition. After receiving the petitions, the Mayor and his counsel Max Brown announced that the city will seek a settlement of the case with plaintiff Margie Hunter and her lawyers.]
P.O. Box 75265
Washington, DC 20013-5265
Monday, June 21, 1999
Mayor Anthony Williams
Executive Office of the Mayor
One Judiciary Square
Washington, DC 20001
Dear Mayor Williams:
Attached you will find more than 500 petition signatures urging you to reverse your decision in support of the DC Corporation Counsel's actions in Margie Hunter v. District of Columbia, et al. (Civil Action 96-1338). This is the same case about which GLAA first wrote to you on December 29, 1998 before you took office, and which we and other activists raised with you at your town meeting with the gay community in March. It is past time for the District to end its challenge to the jury award in this case.
The signers of these petitions include DC residents as well as people who work in the District and who visit the District. All of us have something in common with Mrs. Hunter and her late child: we have the right to expect professional and respectful treatment from the Distict's Fire Department and EMS staff in the event of an emergency. We also have the right to expect that the District Government does not hold itself or its employees above the law, including in particular the Human Rights Law.
We urge your prompt consideration of this petition.
Sincerely,
Richard J. Rosendall
Public Safety Chair
Enclosure