OHR Director Charles Holman, Councilmember Kathy Patterson, Mayor Anthony Williams,
and GLAA's Craig Howell pose with executive order on non-discrimination
Mayor Williams Announces Anti-Discrimination Executive Order
Representatives of gay, Asian, Latino, and African-American organizations attended the ceremony and posed for photographs with the Mayor, Councilmember Patterson, and Mr. Holman. In addition to Howell, gay community members participating in the ceremony included GLAA President Bob Summersgill; DC Coalition co-chair Charlotte Young; the Mayor's acting GLBT liaison, Wanda Alston; the director of the Mayor's Office of Boards and Commissions, Ronald King; DC Human Rights Commissioner Peter Schott; UDC trustee Peter Rosenstein; the founder of the District's gay rights movement, Frank Kameny; former GLAA President Rick Rosendall; and GLAA member Kevin Davis.
This Executive Order provides uniform language to be used by District agencies in all notices of non-discrimination of any kind including race, religion, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation and all others covered in the DC Human Rights Act of 1977. The order also places monitoring authority in the Office of Human Rights as opposed to the Office of the Secretary. Howell commended the Mayor, Mrs. Patterson, and Mr. Holman for their efforts in getting the order re-issued. A similar order was originally issued in 1980 by then-Mayor Marion Barry at GLAA's urging after a similar problem of District agencies repeatedly failing to include all the protected categories in the DC Human Rights Law of 1977 in their notices of non-discrimination.
