Questionnaire for DC Council Chair Candidates in Special Election
Election Day: July 22, 1997
NOTE: Before you complete and return your questionnaire, you should call us to request a Briefing on the issues we have raised. These briefings typically last about an hour. Call us on (202) 667-5139 to schedule your briefing. Also be sure to read through GLAA's Agenda: 1997.
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1. Do you support legal recognition of marriages between persons of the same sex?
2. Will you oppose efforts by Congress or other parties to stop the District of Columbia from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in Hawaii or other places?
3. Do you oppose efforts by Congress or other parties to outlaw or restrict adoptions by unmarried couples in the District of Columbia?
4. If Congress ever repeals the D.C. Health Care Benefits Expansion Act of 1992 that established the registration of domestic partnerships, will you vote to reenact the same law?
5. Do you support the reestablishment of the Office of Human Rights as an independent, adequately-staffed, Cabinet-level agency whose Director has direct access to the Mayor?
6. Do you agree that the Boy Scouts of America is violating the D.C. Human Rights Law's ban on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation by excluding gays from participating either as scouts or as leaders?
7. Will you vote to repeal the Armstrong Amendment, which allows religiously-affiliated private educational institutions in the District to discriminate against student clubs that promote equal rights for lesbians and gay men?
8. It has recently been revealed that the District failed to spend $1 million of its own appropriated funds to combat AIDS in the last fiscal year. Such underspending jeopardizes the District's ability to receive federal funding under the Ryan White Act and contributed to the city's long delay in awarding a contract for an effective needle exchange program. What will you do as Council Chair to safeguard us against such fumbling by our health agencies?
9. Do you support the legalization of the medical use of marijuana when a patient's doctor recommends it as a means to combat the effects of AIDS, cancer, and other diseases when more conventional treatments for alleviating symptoms fail?
10. The Metropolitan Police Department, the ABC Board, the Department of Consumer & Regulatory Affairs, and the Fire Department have been neglecting their proper duties and instead have been coordinating a relentless and deliberate campaign of harassment targeted against gay businesses. What will you do to stop this systematic and discriminatory abuse of regulatory powers?
11. In 1995, the Council summarily abolished the Civilian Complaint Review Board, thereby allowing the Metropolitan Police Department to handle all public complaints about excessive use of force or abusive language by the police. Last year the Council failed to enact the Police Conduct Review Board Act of 1995, to establish an improved system for civilian review of such complaints against the police; the Council claimed there were no funds for establishing the new board. Will you vote to establish and fund the Police Conduct Review Board for FY 1998?
12. Will you support legislation to authorize and regulate the issuance of liquor licenses to establishments (in designated nonresidential commercial districts) that want to offer nude dancing as entertainment?
13. The City Council has seldom aggressively exercised its oversight powers over the District government and has been too passive and reactive in addressing the mismanagement problems that routinely plague our city's administration. As Council Chair, what would you do to improve the Council's performance of its oversight responsibilities?
14. Our own elected officials, past and present, bear much of the responsibility for the District's current financial current plight because of their reluctance to make tough budgetary decisions, to establish priorities, and to demand maximum efficiency and productivity (rather than political loyalty) from all District government agencies and workers. As Council Chair, what would you do to turn the Council's corporate culture towards a more responsible stance?
15. As Council Chair, which programs of the D.C. government would you want to cut back or eliminate so that higher-priority programs can be adequately funded rather than be victimized by indiscriminate across-the-board budget reductions?
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Please feel free to send us any copies of speeches, documents, campaign literature, or anything else that might illustrate your record on gay and lesbian issues.
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Your answers should be written on separate sheets of paper rather than on this form. You must sign your name on each sheet to indicate your personal commitment to your answers. Please return this questionnaire by Tuesday, July 1, to: GLAA, P.O. Box 75265, Washington, D.C. 20013-5265. You may FAX your replies; please call Rick Rosendall on 328-6278 to make arrangements. In addition to your signed responses, you can also submit your replies on disk so it can appear on our GLAA website. We can not accept e-mail transmissions.
