Related Links

Defending DC Marriage Equality (HTM) (PDF) 05/30/10 Agenda: 2010 (HTM) (PDF) 05/29/10 Marriage arguments at D.C. Court of Appeals 05/04/10 The Fenty/PFOX files 05/01/10 GLAA's OutHistory entry 04/30/10 Awards presented at GLAA reception 04/20/10 A Timeline on Marriage Equality in D.C. 03/31/10 How We Won 03/04/10 GLAA's D.C. Elections Project 2010

Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, DC
P.O. Box 75265
Washington, D.C. 20013
www.glaa.org
www.glaaforum.org (blog)

For Immediate Release
Contact: Rick Rosendall
202-667-5139

GLAA Releases “Agenda: 2010” LGBT issues briefing paper

The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C. has released “Agenda: 2010,” its election-year briefing paper on local LGBT issues. This document, available at www.glaa.org/archive/2010/agenda2010.pdf and www.glaa.org/archive/2010/agenda2010.htm, gathers GLAA’s policy advocacy in six main subject areas:

1. Marriage and Family
2. Public Health
3. Public Safety
4. Human Rights
5. Public Education and Youth
6. Consumers and Businesses

Designed for educating D.C. candidates for Mayor and D.C. Council on LGBT issues, “Agenda: 2010” is also a resource for journalists, activists, and the general public. In July, after the filing deadline for candidates in the September 14 D.C. Primary election, GLAA will mail a copy of “Agenda: 2010” to each candidate for mayor and D.C. Council along with GLAA’s candidate questionnaire. Until then, “Agenda: 2010” is subject to revision as issues and concerns arise. The online versions of the document are updated to reflect the date of last revision.

“GLAA’s questionnaires are not a game of Gotcha,” said GLAA President Mitch Wood. “Continued success in our advocacy requires educating candidates, and the expertise compiled in ‘Agenda: 2010’ turns our questionnaire into an open-book exam. Our non-partisan ratings are designed to inform voters on candidates’ positions and records on LGBT issues.”

Wood added, “The issues we tackle, from health and public safety to education and business regulation, show that we still face many challenges in ensuring that our city serves all of its people—despite significant advances like the recent victory for civil marriage equality.”

GLAA will announce its ratings of primary candidates in late August, and will publish candidates’ complete questionnaire answers, along with ratings point breakdowns, on its website at www.glaa.org. The same process will be repeated for direct-access candidates (such as independents) in the general election cycle.

In both the PDF and HTM versions of “Agenda: 2010” at glaa.org, clicking on a table of contents entry takes you directly to the item in question, and clicking on a URL in a footnote takes you to the referenced external document. This makes “Agenda: 2010” a valuable tool for research on the issues presented.

Below are highlights from “Agenda: 2010.”

Marriage and Family: The Archdiocese of Washington and Church-State Separation:
"Children needing loving homes are better off if one of the agencies providing placement services is not routinely and arbitrarily excluding an entire group from consideration as potential parents."

Public Health: Flaws in the “MSM in D.C.” study:
"Reports based on limited data could actually impede HIV prevention and care efforts by contributing to public misunderstanding."

Public Health: Grantmaking authority for the Office of GLBT Affairs:
"In order to create mechanisms for directing needed services to minority and at-risk populations, we call on the Council to pass legislation giving the directors of the Office of GLBT Affairs and the Office of African Affairs the authority to issue grants to organizations serving the populations within their purview."

Public Safety: Police infringement of civil liberties:
"Rather than resorting to unsustainable, media-centric quick fixes with constitutionally questionable methods, the city should recommit itself to improving basic policing and to consulting with community voices instead of trying to pit groups of citizens against one another."

Public Safety: Department of Corrections discrimination against transgender detainees:
"Transgender inmates ... are often housed solely based on their genitalia, denied appropriate health care, sexually assaulted, abusively strip-searched, and placed in protective custody that amounts to punishing the victim."

Human Rights: Honors for the honorable:
"One excuse we have heard for extending honors to anti-gay people and organizations, including the Salvation Army, is that they have otherwise done good works. But good works do not excuse discrimination or bias."

Public Education and Youth: Vouchers:
"Many of the federal funds in the voucher program have wound up in the hands of religiously-affiliated schools where gay and lesbian students, teachers and employees enjoy none of the anti-discrimination protections of the D.C. Human Rights Act."

Consumers and Businesses: Defending adult entertainment:
"Busybodies should not be permitted to misuse the government to boss their neighbors on matters that are none of their business."

Consumers and Businesses: Prostitution: legalize it, regulate it, zone it, tax it:
"Harassing, arresting and prosecuting people for survival sex solve none of their problems, but only pile more on. Whose idea of responsible public policy is this? To be justified, any public law ought to serve some identifiable common good."

Founded in 1971, the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington (GLAA) is an all-volunteer, non-partisan, non-profit political organization that defends the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgenders in the Nation’s Capital. GLAA lobbies the DC Council, monitors government agencies, educates and rates local candidates, and works in coalitions to defend the safety, health, and equal rights of gay families. GLAA remains the nation's oldest continuously active gay and lesbian civil rights organization.

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