Responses of Laurent Ross to GLAA 2004 Questionnaire
for D.C. Council Candidates
| Yes/No (+/- 2) |
Substance (+/- 4) |
Record (+/- 3) |
Championship (+/- 1) |
Total (+/- 10) |
| 2 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 2 ½ |
Public Safety
1. Will you support an annual budget for the Office of Citizen Complaint Review big enough to prevent the development of a backlog of citizen allegations of police misconduct?
Yes. But the Office of Citizen Complaint Review needs more than just a sufficient budget. It needs much more strength. I advocate giving it the power of subpoena. I will also propose that a time limit of 6 months be set on all cases that appear before it. I would give the Office power to review police policies, training, and practices to identify areas for improvement.
2. Will you support funding for mandatory gay male, lesbian, bisexual and transgender sensitivity and diversity training including gay and transgender community representatives as a continuing part of the training for all members of the Metropolitan Police Department and the Fire/EMS Department?
Yes.
Public Health & AIDS
3. Will you lobby your colleagues and Council Chairman Linda Cropp to create a new Committee on Health, split out from the current Committee on Human Services, that will be chaired by someone committed to vigorous oversight of the Department of Health?
Yes. This issue is symptomatic of another issue: the small overall size of the City Council. I will advocate for doubling the size of the City Council. The present number of City Council Members is just too small to properly handle committee, legislative, oversight, and budget responsibilities.
4. The rate of HIV infections in DC is the highest in the United States, rivaling levels in sub-Saharan Africa. Problems of rampant corruption, illegal activities, and demoralized staff at the HIV/AIDS Administration (HAA) have been well documented. Yet there has not been an oversight hearing on HAA for more than a year. The previous oversight hearing was five years earlier. If elected or re-elected to the Council, will you ensure that the Council holds an annual performance oversight hearing on HAA?
Yes. As I pointed out in my answer to Question 3, I will advocate for expanding the size of the City Council because the current Council is just too small to properly handle its oversight responsibilities. Nonetheless, HAA is such an important component of public health in our city that, even with the current relatively small size of our City Council, merits at least annual review.
5. Will you ask the D.C. Inspector General for a full audit of the HIV/AIDS Administration and its contractors?
Yes.
6. The current HIV epidemiological surveillance system discourages people-especially immigrants-from getting tested by requiring both their partial Social Security Number and their country of origin. This potentially threatens their ability to stay in this country. Will you support and vote for legislation that will eliminate the partial Social Security Number from the unique identifier system?
Yes. As long as there are people who have HIV, but have yet to be tested to become aware of their status, we must do everything in our power to encourage them to come forward for testing so that treatment can begin. I am opposed to any policy that would discriminate against immigrants as our current policy does.
7. Only one insurance company operating in D.C. offers domestic partner coverage to small businesses that wish to offer the benefit. Will you vote in favor of legislation requiring insurance carriers to make domestic partner coverage available for small businesses that want to offer this health care benefit to their employees?
Yes.
Human Rights
8. Despite significant improvements made in the operations of the Office of Human Rights (OHR) in the past several years, the OHR FY 2005 budget was not increased to hire additional investigators and other staff so that the case backlog will continue to drop. Will you support maintaining funding levels and aggressive oversight to ensure that the OHR case backlog continues to drop?
Yes.
9. Will you block ceremonial resolutions and otherwise decline to honor individuals or organizations that promote any sort of bigotry, including but not limited to the Salvation Army, Assemblies of God and the Boy Scouts of America?
Yes. I will block ceremonial resolutions to any organization that practices open bigotry of any sort.
Defending Our Families
10. Will you support legal recognition of marriages between partners of the same sex?
Yes. However, I agree with GALA that, tactically, now is not the time to advance such legislation in the District because of our oversight by a homophobic U.S. Congress. Of course, this would not even be an issue if we had statehood. This is another example why simple Congressional representation is not enough for D.C. We must achieve full statehood in order to achieve true equality with other Americans. What other state must have its legislation approved by the U.S. Congress and the President before becoming law? The District's subjugation by Congress is a ridiculous anachronism in today's world.
11. Will you support legislation in the District to expand the domestic partner program to include all of the relevant rights and responsibilities of marriage in D.C. law?
Yes. But only as an intermediary step, for the tactical reasons discussed above in my response to Question 11. Upon achievement of full statehood for New Columbia, or upon election of a more sympathetic Congress and President, I will advocate for full legal recognition of marriages between partners of the same sex.
12. Will you support the legislative and/or regulatory changes necessary to ensure that the District recognizes marriages, civil unions, and domestic partnerships established in other jurisdictions?
Yes.
Public Education and Youth
13. Will you oppose both federally and locally funded voucher programs that place students in religious schools and outside the protections of the D.C. Human Rights Act?
Yes. I oppose public-funded voucher programs period, halt, and stop, regardless of which schools they are used for. Public dollars should be for public education.
14. Will you oppose the use of either federal or District taxpayer funds to promote so-called "abstinence-only-until-marriage" sex education that undermines safer-sex programs by discouraging the use of condoms and that tells gay and lesbian students that they must be celibate forever because they may not legally marry?
Yes. However, I have nothing against abstinence-based sex education programs as long as they do not undermine other aspects of sex education. I also have no problem with abstinence-until-marriage programs, as long as their advocates are willing to include domestic partnerships as part of their definition of marriage, until such time as we allow every person in the District of Columbia who wishes to marry to do so.
Modernizing the Criminal Code
15. Will you vote to repeal the use of undefined and unspecified common law crimes and to repeal the laws criminalizing verbal solicitations of legal sexual activity?
[No answer.]
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.
