[Note: An edited version of this letter was printed in the District Weekly of The Washington Post on Thursday, August 24, 2000.]

Friday, August 18, 2000

Letters to the Editor
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20071

To the Editor:

Although I spoke at length to Washington Post reporter Sewell Chan, the District Notebook [August 17, 2000] still identified the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance rating of Council candidates as endorsements and in particular, Councilmember Brazil and Chavous' ratings as an "anti-endorsement". This is simply incorrect.

GLAA, a strictly non-partisan organization, does not endorse or dis-endorse candidates in partisan races. GLAA has rated all candidates appearing on the ballot for the September 12 primary election on a scale of +10 to -10. A zero on that scale is neutral. Most candidates, including Brazil and Chavous, scored within 2 points of the neutral point.

Five candidates - Jack Evans, Charlene Drew Jarvis, Carol Schwartz, John Fanning and Arturo Griffiths - were all rated highly at 6 and above. The story isn't that a couple of incumbents rated poorly, it is that incumbents, challengers and candidates of three parties all excelled.

GLAA doesn't just make up a number for a rating. Well prior to our rating session, a lengthy, carefully-formulated agenda of our gay-related interests, concerns, and local political issues is drawn up, to inform the candidates (and the public) of what our positions are, and why they are as they are. A copy of that agenda is provided to each candidate, along with a questionnaire (18 questions, this time) to which a substantive written response is requested, including not only a "yes" or "no" answer, but an essay-type reply.

Our ratings themselves are then based upon an objective and fair assessment of the candidate, carefully calibrated, with a certain number of available points (plus or minus) for agreement with our positions themselves, for depth of understanding of those positions and of the current political situation surrounding each of them, and for the candidate's record on those issues and on others of relevance to us which may have surfaced in the past.

GLAA also publishes the full breakdown of ratings, our positions on the issues and the full text of every candidate's questionnaire on our web site at www.glaa.org.

We welcome everyone to examine the ratings for themselves, as well as candidate's responses to our questions and the candidates' own websites and come to their own conclusions of whom they should or should not support.

Sincerely,

Bob Summersgill,
President, Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, DC

The Washington Post
DISTRICT NOTEBOOK
By Carol D. Leonnig and Sewell Chan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 17, 2000; Page J02

[excerpt]

The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, a 29-year-old nonpartisan government advocacy group, has issued its periodic ratings of political candidates. Evans, Jarvis and Carol Schwartz (R-At Large) led the pack with ratings of between 8 and 9.5 of a possible 10. But Brazil earned a minus-.5 and Chavous a minus-2.

Why the anti-endorsements? Brazil championed a "Megan's Law" bill that initially would have required registration of persons convicted of having oral sex in private, a clause deleted before the bill passed, explained Bob Summersgill, the alliance president.

Megan's Law, named after a 7-year-old New Jersey girl raped and murdered by an adult neighbor, requires convicted sex offenders to register with authorities and alert them to subsequent moves.

Chavous did not return the alliance's questionnaire, failed to support amendments to the city's Megan's Law and did not introduce an anti-harassment policy for public schools as he had promised, Summersgill said.