Responses of Nestor Djonkam to GLAA 2006 Questionnaire
for DC Mayoral Candidates
| Yes/No | Substance | Record | Championship | Total |
| 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.5 |
Public Safety
1. Will you support funding for mandatory gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) sensitivity and diversity training for all members of the Fire/EMS Department, starting with the first budget you submit to the Council?
Yes
2. Will you appoint a new Fire/EMS Department Chief who is committed to rooting out the Department’s deeply entrenched homophobia and transphobia?
Yes
3. Will you include representatives of the GLBT community in the search process when you appoint a new Police Chief and a new Fire/EMS Chief?
Yes
4. Are you committed to continuing the Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit within the Metropolitan Police Department?
Yes
5. Will you submit a budget request for the Office of Police Complaints that will be large enough to continue to avoid developing a backlog of cases?
Yes
6. Will you ensure that the Department of Corrections enforces the District’s Human Rights Act against contractors who discriminate against transgender visitors to correctional facilities?
Yes
7. Will you oppose legislation creating so-called “prostitution-free zones,” which would give the police, who routinely assume that every transgendered person is a prostitute until proven otherwise, virtually unlimited power to harass our transgendered residents?
No While I agree that the police have a deep need for the sensitivity training that will reduce prejudices,--and I have and will push for that--I have to support any measure which will help in the campaign to reduce crime and HIV/Aids transmission.
AIDS and Public Health
8. Will you ensure that the drive to make HIV testing routine among District residents includes funding for counseling and referrals to treatment facilities for those who test positive?
Yes
9. Are you committed to continuing and strengthening the District’s condom distribution program?
Yes
10. The District is being forced by the federal government to switch from a unique identifier system to a names reporting system for people testing positive for HIV. Will you support legislation to strengthen our medical privacy laws, such as by creating a private right of action for those whose confidentiality is violated by District government employees or contractors?
Yes
Human Rights
11. Will you submit a budget for the Office of Human Rights (OHR) large enough to allow it to reduce to 270 days the average gap between the time that a discrimination complaint is filed and the time OHR issues a finding of probable cause?
Yes
12. Will you refuse to issue proclamations and otherwise decline to honor individuals or organizations that promote any sort of bigotry?
Yes
13. Will you refuse to appoint to your Interfaith Council ministers such as Bishop Owens and Rev. Willie Wilson who have publicly hurled vile language against members of the District’s GLBT community?
No. I would review the circumstances of each potential appointment before rendering a decision. However, since I refrain from using offensive language regardless of situation, I would certainly expect that members and potential members of my administration would follow that same credo.
14. Will you invite representatives of GLAA to participate in the search process when you appoint a new Director of the Office of Human Rights, as Mayor Williams did in 2003?
Yes
15. Are you committed to enforcing the provisions of the D.C. Human Rights Act forbidding discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression?
Yes
Marriage and Family
16. Do you support legal recognition of marriages between partners of the same sex?
No. However, I do and will continue to support civil unions between members of the same sex which carry the same legal weight as marriage. I reserve the use of the term “marriage” to unions between members of the opposite sex.
17. Will your Administration publicize and enforce the recently enacted laws that have significantly expanded the rights and responsibilities of domestic partners?
Yes
18. Will you support legislation in the District to continue expanding the existing domestic partnership program to include all relevant rights and responsibilities of marriage in D.C. law?
Yes
19. Will you support the legislative and/or regulatory changes necessary to ensure that the District recognizes civil unions, domestic partnerships and similar legal relationships established in other jurisdictions?
Yes
Public Education and Youth
20. Do you oppose both federal and local voucher programs that fund students in religious schools that are beyond the protections of the D.C. Human Rights Act?
Yes
21. Do you oppose the use of either federal or District taxpayer funds to promote “abstinence-only-until-marriage” sex education that undermines safer-sex programs by discouraging the use of condoms and that effectively tells gay and lesbian students that they must remain celibate forever because they may not legally marry?
Yes
Consumers and Businesses
22. Do you support the relocation of the many gay bars and businesses that were displaced by the new ballpark, even if local NIMBYs and homophobes oppose them?
Yes. Consistent with local zoning laws. Patrons are expected to conduct themselves in a manner which is not offensive to the establishment’s neighbors just as with any other business of this type.
23. Will you support legislation to curb the abuses of NIMBYs who are now allowed to file an endless series of baseless complaints to harass or extort bars and restaurants?
Yes. Consistent with all my legislative proposals to curb frivolous law suits of all types.
24. Do you oppose the Youth Protection from Obscene Video Games Act (B16-0125), a clone of other laws that have consistently been struck down by the courts on constitutional grounds?
Yes
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.
I refused to restrict the services of my organizations, Nestor for Hope and /or Camaroonian Outreach, from any applicant on the basis of sexual orientation, despite repeated requests to do so.