Responses of Jerod Tolson to GLAA 2004 Questionnaire
for D.C. Council Candidates
| Yes/No (+/- 2) |
Substance (+/- 4) |
Record (+/- 3) |
Championship (+/- 1) |
Total (+/- 10) |
| 1 ½ | 2 ½ | 0 | 0 | 4 |
Public Safety
1. Will you support an annual budget for the Office of Citizen Complaint Review big enough to prevent the development of a backlog of citizen allegations of police misconduct?
Yes. Allowing allegations of misconduct is inappropriate. OCCR, must be fully funded to ensure that its staffing of investigators is commensurate with the caseload; and it must pay investigators at competitive rates in order to retain them. I support the Mayor's budget proposal which will address the backlog. Police misconduct is a problem that is not adequately addressed.
2. Will you support funding for mandatory gay male, lesbian, bisexual and transgender sensitivity and diversity training including gay and transgender community representatives as a continuing part of the training for all members of the Metropolitan Police Department and the Fire/EMS Department?
Yes. Training sends a message to all officers that discrimination will not be tolerated on the force. As a Council member I will also ask MPD to reinstate sensitivity training of veteran MPD officers which was discontinued four years ago.
Public Health & AIDS
3. Will you lobby your colleagues and Council Chairman Linda Cropp to create a new Committee on Health, split out from the current Committee on Human Services, that will be chaired by someone committed to vigorous oversight of the Department of Health?
Yes. Currently the Health and Human Services Committee oversees 25% of city expenditures. It is difficult and cumbersome for one committee to oversee such a large part of the city government.
4. The rate of HIV infections in DC is the highest in the United States, rivaling levels in sub-Saharan Africa. Problems of rampant corruption, illegal activities, and demoralized staff at the HIV/AIDS Administration (HAA) have been well documented. Yet there has not been an oversight hearing on HAA for more than a year. The previous oversight hearing was five years earlier. If elected or re-elected to the Council, will you ensure that the Council holds an annual performance oversight hearing on HAA?
Yes. GLAA has provided excellent briefing on the troublesome history of this agency and made reasonable recommendations for improvement. I support the suggested improvements including the appointment of a Director of HAA who will be fully dedicated to that job, more vigorous oversight by the council, an audit of HAA, and dividing council oversight into a second committee.
5. Will you ask the D.C. Inspector General for a full audit of the HIV/AIDS Administration and its contractors?
Yes. Auditing is an important part of oversight and ensures that money is appropriated properly. When we refuse to audit, we open the door to corruption and mismanagement. Our tax dollars are too valuable to be wasted in such a way. Furthermore, we have a responsibility to others who pay into the system, such as the federal government, to insure that their funds are spent wisely.
6. The current HIV epidemiological surveillance system discourages people-especially immigrants-from getting tested by requiring both their partial Social Security Number and their country of origin. This potentially threatens their ability to stay in this country. Will you support and vote for legislation that will eliminate the partial Social Security Number from the unique identifier system?
Yes. Knowing one's own health status is the most important step toward protecting public health. Statistics are important; however, use of Social Security numbers undermines confidence in anonymity in addition to discriminating against those who lack a Social Security number.
7. Only one insurance company operating in D.C. offers domestic partner coverage to small businesses that wish to offer the benefit. Will you vote in favor of legislation requiring insurance carriers to make domestic partner coverage available for small businesses that want to offer this health care benefit to their employees?
Yes. I would prefer that the District government use other means to encourage providers to extend their coverage. It is in the public interest to have as many residents as possible fully insured and there is little evidence that extending domestic partnership coverage is burdensome to insurers or employers. I would prefer that insurers be given the chance to do the right thing before legislation is enacted.
Human Rights
8. Despite significant improvements made in the operations of the Office of Human Rights (OHR) in the past several years, the OHR FY 2005 budget was not increased to hire additional investigators and other staff so that the case backlog will continue to drop. Will you support maintaining funding levels and aggressive oversight to ensure that the OHR case backlog continues to drop?
Yes. I do not believe that having cases languishing in the system is appropriate. OHR must be fully funded to ensure that its staffing of investigators is commensurate with the caseload; and it must pay investigators at competitive rates in order to retain them. I would push for increased funding to reduce the OHR case backlog. Backlogs are signs of inefficient operation.
9. Will you block ceremonial resolutions and otherwise decline to honor individuals or organizations that promote any sort of bigotry, including but not limited to the Salvation Army, Assemblies of God and the Boy Scouts of America?
Yes I would block ceremonial resolutions and decline to honor any organizations that promote bigotry. No entity is empowered with the right to judge another individual or group of individuals. We live in a society where people are different and are entitled to have various views and opinion on a wide array of issues. I do not support any organization that discredits another human beings way of life.
Defending Our Families
10. Will you support legal recognition of marriages between partners of the same sex?
Yes. Civil marriage does not bind those who do not believe in same-sex marriage to recognize such marriages in a religious context. There are no compelling reasons for society not to recognize same-sex marriages as such relationships are between two individuals and pose no harm to society at large. Those who believe that same-sex marriages are not ordained by God are free to pursue such beliefs in the context of their own religious institutions.
11. Will you support legislation in the District to expand the domestic partner program to include all of the relevant rights and responsibilities of marriage in D.C. law?
Only in the absence of recognition by the District of Columbia for civil marriages between partners of the same sex.
12. Will you support the legislative and/or regulatory changes necessary to ensure that the District recognizes marriages, civil unions, and domestic partnerships established in other jurisdictions?
Yes. I believe it is of utmost importance for us to recognize existing legal relationships from other jurisdictions. Individuals should not loose rights simply because they choose to move into our jurisdiction.
Public Education and Youth
13. Will you oppose both federally and locally funded voucher programs that place students in religious schools and outside the protections of the D.C. Human Rights Act?
I am on record as supporting vouchers. I believe that they offer children who are in underperforming schools an opportunity at a better education. Unfortunately, a person has only one chance at quality primary and secondary education. The quality of that education will affect their economic prosperity for the rest of their lives. However, I am committed to working with GLAA to find ways to insure that private schools in D.C. adhere to the same principals outlined in the D.C. Human Rights Act. I would support the creation of an oversight board to insure that students attending private schools are protected under the D.C. Human Rights Act or amending the D.C. Human Rights Act to include student attending private schools.
14. Will you oppose the use of either federal or District taxpayer funds to promote so-called "abstinence-only-until-marriage" sex education that undermines safer-sex programs by discouraging the use of condoms and that tells gay and lesbian students that they must be celibate forever because they may not legally marry?
Yes. I support the teaching of abstinence as part of a wider curriculum. The D.C. Board of Education rules mandate a comprehensive, age-appropriate sexual education program for all students including abstinence, anatomy, contraception, homosexuality, and discussion of the process of making personal decisions in matters of parenting and sexuality. I believe that D.C. Public Schools should stick to this mandate.
Modernizing the Criminal Code
15. Will you vote to repeal the use of undefined and unspecified common law crimes and to repeal the laws criminalizing verbal solicitations of legal sexual activity?
Yes. I do not support having laws which we do not enforce or which are unenforceable.
Record
Your record is part of your rating. Please list any actions that you have taken that may help illustrate your record on behalf of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders.