Welcoming Remarks

Barrett L. Brick
GLAA President

GLAA 37th Anniversary Reception
Washington Plaza Hotel
Thursday, April 17, 2008

Good evening, and welcome to the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance’s 37th Anniversary Reception. I am Barrett Brick, President of GLAA, and I would like to thank you all for coming out tonight to celebrate the history of GLAA and to honor our 2008 Distinguished Service awardees.

In addition to our honorees, I would like to acknowledge the presence among us tonight of Gustavo Velasquez, Director of the Office of Human Rights. Councilmembers Kwame Brown, Jack Evans, Phil Mendelson, and Carol Schwartz send greetings, and Councilmember David Catania will be arriving later. And we have also received greetings from our good friend, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.

We have been very busy since our last anniversary. Whether this is your first time with GLAA or you are long time friends, I would like to offer just a quick recap of our recent accomplishments.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Geoffrey M. Alprin vindicated our concerns by finding probable cause in EEO Expert Kenda Kirby’s discrimination case against the DC Fire & EMS Department. We had helped with Kenda’s legal costs, and, following Judge Alprin’s decision, urged Mayor Fenty to seek a prompt and just settlement in the case. We are pleased that the city has done so, and also that the Fire & EMS Department, under Chief Rubin, has appointed its first LGBT Liaison Officer, Sgt. Jane “JB” Wallace.

Together with local activist Peter Rosenstein, we mobilized the community to oppose the decentralization of the Metropolitan Police Department's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit. In response, Police Chief Cathy Lanier met with community leaders and agreed to preserve the core unit while expanding the unit's reach throughout the city.

Bills supported by GLAA became law, including the Homeless Shelter Monitoring Amendment Act and the Safe and Stable Homes for Children and Youth Amendment Act. We successfully lobbied for specific inclusion of domestic partners in the Paid Sick and Safe Days Act. We have worked with the ACLU of the National Capital Area to keep bad laws off the books. And we testified in support of the DC Public Schools proposed health standards, which will provide comprehensive and GLBT-inclusive sex education for District youth.

A bill introduced by Councilmember Jim Graham to permit the relocation of clubs displaced by Nationals Park passed after heavy lobbying by GLAA. Though the bill was watered down after one councilmember stirred up community opposition, we are pleased that Ziegfeld’s/Secrets appears to be headed for a reopening in a new location in southwest DC.

We have continued our incremental drive toward equality for our families under DC law. One result is that domestic partners had the option for the first time this year of filing their DC taxes jointly. We co-sponsored December’s community forum on marriage equality. And we look forward to working with the mayor and the Council to determine how best to recognize nonmarital relationships from other jurisdictions.

In last May’s special elections in Wards 4 and 7, we rated Council candidates on their records and their responses to our questionnaire, as we have done in every D.C. election since our founding in 1971. We will do the same in this year’s Council races. Our ratings are widely recognized as fair, objective, and thorough – “excruciatingly thorough,” as one reporter once described our evaluation process – and are designed to show whether candidates demonstrate an understanding of the complex issues facing our community. The candidates’ responses together with our ratings are published on our website as a community resource.

GLAA’s concerns are not exclusively focused locally. We continue to work with local and national allies to minimize Congressional meddling in DC’s affairs. One of our honorees this evening, PreventionWorks!, is a particular beneficiary of these efforts. On the international front, for the third year in a row, we prepared an extraction of the GLBT- and HIV/AIDS-related portions of the State Department's massive annual country-by-country human rights reports, making it available online as a resource for international human rights activists.

GLAA skips the frills to focus on experienced and informed activism. We work to build relationships with our public officials and other community leaders – supporting their positive efforts, educating and challenging them when necessary – all the while building constructive relationships for the betterment of one of our nation’s largest and most diverse GLBT communities. I am proud to have been a member of GLAA for over two decades now, and once again I thank all of you for your support.

It is now my honor to introduce Christopher Dyer to give greetings on behalf of Mayor Adrian Fenty.