Responses of Erik Gaull to GLAA 2006 Questionnaire
for DC Council Candidates
| Yes/No | Substance | Record | Championship | Total |
| 2 | 3 | 2.5 | 0 | 7.5 |
Public Safety
1. Will you support funding for mandatory gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) sensitivity and diversity training for all members of the Fire/EMS Department?
Yes. The Fire and EMS Department (FEMSD) has failed at every opportunity to rectify its heavily ingrained homo- and transphobic culture. Although there are some GLBT employees of the FEMSD, most are closeted (in fact, I know of only one openly lesbian employee) – a fact which underscores the agency’s hostile atmosphere towards GLBT people. The FEMSD needs to take a lesson from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit (GLLU), which delivers in-service training each year to its personnel and strives to increase it outreach and service to the GLBT community. The FEMSD should – at the very least – have a dedicated GLBT liaison (i.e., hire someone into Kendra Kirby’s position).
More broadly, I support mandatory GLBT sensitivity and diversity training for all client-facing positions in the D.C. Government.
2. Will you call on the new Mayor to appoint a new Fire/EMS Department Chief who is committed to rooting out the Department’s deeply entrenched homophobia and transphobia?
Yes. And I will make it very clear to the new Mayor that no nominee for the position of Fire Chief will receive my vote in a confirmation hearing unless I am 100% convinced of the nominee’s personal commitment to changing the culture of the FEMSD in that respect.
3. Will you support a budget for the Office of Police Complaints large enough to continue to avoid developing a backlog of cases?
Yes. Backlogs hurt the public’s perception of the District’s commitment to ensuring equal treatment for all as well as the officers and citizens involved.
4. Will you oppose legislation creating so-called “prostitution-free zones,” which would give the police, who routinely assume that every transgendered person is a prostitute until proven otherwise, virtually unlimited power to harass our transgendered residents?
Yes. I oppose “prostitution-free zones” because by displacing prostitutes from narrowly circumscribed areas, we essentially create “prostitution zones” elsewhere – often in unsafe areas. Organizations like HIPS (Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive) have found that when sex workers are barred from certain areas of the city, they often move to more dangerous areas. Law enforcement should address prostitution throughout the city on an even keel, without regard to the gender or gender-identity of the sex worker.
Furthermore, I will oppose any bill that lacks carefully crafted protections to prevent harassment of transgendered persons by the police. The police should enforce all laws (prostitution-related and otherwise) equally against violators without regard to gender identity, sexual preference, race, class, etc.
AIDS and Public Health
5. Do you agree that the drive to make HIV testing routine among District residents should include funding for counseling and referrals to treatment facilities for those testing positive?
Yes. I recently had my HIV status tested as a part of the District’s new initiative to test 80,000 residents. The efficiency and ease with which I was able to be tested and the availability of counseling and referrals at the time I was tested were both heartening and necessary. Testing should be routine, especially given the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS crisis afflicting D.C. Additional relevant information should be available at the testing site for individuals willing to be tested. If the District is suggesting to residents that they be tested (as it is), then the District has a responsibility to ensure proper follow-up is available.
6. Are you committed to continuing and expanding the District’s condom distribution program?
Yes. I have stated so on my website, in my blog, and in public on numerous occasions. I also believe that the District needs a viable needle exchange program. Both condom usage and needle exchange have been demonstrated efficacious in reducing the transmission of HIV. Given the District’s appalling HIV infection statistics (1:20 people and 1:7 African-American men are HIV+), we should be availing ourselves of every proven method of preventing infection.
7. The District is being forced by the federal government to switch from a unique identifier system to a names reporting system for people testing positive for HIV. Will you support legislation to strengthen our medical privacy laws, such as by creating a private right of action for those whose confidentiality is violated by District government employees or contractors?
Yes. In fact, I would support criminalizing the willful and unauthorized release or acquisition of any identifying information from the names registry.
Human Rights
8. Will you support a budget for the Office of Human Rights (OHR) large enough to allow it to reduce to 270 days the average gap between the time that a discrimination complaint is filed and the time OHR issues a finding of probable cause?
Yes. Nine months is too long for someone filing a complaint to have to wait for a finding from OHR. I would be interested in knowing how much additional funding would be required to reduce the average gap to 180 days – a more reasonable period.
9. Will you block ceremonial resolutions and otherwise decline to honor individuals or organizations that promote any sort of bigotry?
Yes. Organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America and the Ku Klux Klan promote discrimination and intolerance. They do not deserve public support – either in the form of ceremonial resolutions, official recognitions, or (more importantly) by allowing them to use public facilities, such as schools. Currently, 16 D.C. Public Schools host Boy Scout or Cub Scout programs. I will seek to deny access to any public facilities or tax dollars to such groups.
10. Are you committed to publicizing and enforcing the provisions of the D.C. Human Rights Act forbidding discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression?
Yes. Such publicity and enforcement also needs to be linked to very carefully craft policies to address transgender access to restrooms and changing rooms.
Marriage and Family
11. Do you support legal recognition of marriages between partners of the same sex?
Yes. I publicly stated so during the Ward 3 election in 2002, and I remain committed to that goal.
12. Will you support legislation in the District to continue expanding the existing domestic partnership program to include all relevant rights and responsibilities of marriage in D.C. law?
Yes. I’ll introduce (or co-sponsor) the legislation. I am concerned that same-sex couples in the United States pay higher taxes and are denied basic protections and rights granted to married couples. This is wrong. Same-sex couples should never be denied the right to visit a sick or injured partner in the hospital. Same-sex couples should be entitled to adopt the children of their partners, obtain social security survivor benefits, buy life-partner health insurance, and receive estate tax breaks, retirement savings transference, family leave, and immigration rights – just the same as heterosexual couples who commit to building lives together. I support gay marriage because I support equal rights. I am prepared to introduce legislation to achieve this, and I will work with the LGBTQ community to determine the most appropriate timing and legislative vehicle to make that vision a reality. I will fight for these rights, but I'll go one step further – I will fight hard to get real representation for the District in Congress because gay marriage cannot happen here unless we have the right to make our own decisions about governing.
13. Will you support the legislative and/or regulatory changes necessary to ensure that the District recognizes civil unions, domestic partnerships and similar legal relationships established in other jurisdictions?
Yes. I’ll introduce (or co-sponsor) the legislation.
Public Education and Youth
14. Do you oppose both federal and local voucher programs that fund students in religious schools that are beyond the protections of the D.C. Human Rights Act?
Yes. I oppose all school voucher programs, especially those that pull students from our public schools into parochial or religious institutions.
15. Do you oppose the use of either federal or District taxpayer funds to promote “abstinence only until marriage” sex education that undermines safer-sex programs by discouraging the use of condoms and that effectively tells gay and lesbian students that they must remain celibate forever because they may not legally marry?
Yes. We need to recognize that middle- and high-school students are having sex (an idea proven by the need for a child care center in the new Bell Multicultural High School). Continuing to deny the obvious means D.C.’s young people are put at increased risk of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease or becoming pregnant. We need to broaden and strengthen our sex education programs by making them recognize the reality of adolescent sexuality.
Consumers and Businesses
16. Do you support the relocation of the many gay bars and businesses that were displaced by the new ballpark, even if local NIMBYs and homophobes oppose them?
Yes. In fact, I’ll personally assist with the identification of relocation sites and negotiations to enable these businesses to obtain leases and business licenses.
17. Will you support legislation to curb the abuses of NIMBYs who are now allowed to file an endless series of baseless complaints to harass or extort bars and restaurants?
Yes. I offered my personal support to Tom McGuire, the owner of the embattled Be Bar, at the GLAA 35th Anniversary Gala. I support efforts to protect bar and restaurant owners from such harassment, while recognizing that legitimate complaints (e.g., noise, criminal activity, litter, and sanitary conditions) must be dealt with in a manner that protects neighborhoods.
18. Do you oppose the Youth Protection from Obscene Video Games Act (B16-0125), a clone of other laws that have consistently been struck down by the courts on constitutional grounds?
Yes. If an act is truly a “clone” of a law previously deemed unconstitutional, then I see no reason to belabor the point by reconsidering the law.
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.
I believe I have an exceptionally strong record as a straight ally of the GLBT community. In addition to my openly calling for laws and policies which promote tolerance, equality, and protection of basic civil and human rights, the following are specific ways I have been supportive of the GLBT community:
I have directed my campaign to patronize GLBT-owned businesses. My campaign manager and one staff member are lesbians, and I am proud to have several gay or lesbian volunteers. I held a fundraiser in a GLBT bar, and I participated in Black Pride and Capitol Pride (including advertising in the Pride Guide).
I am a member of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the National Stonewall Democrats, the D.C. Coalition of Black Gay Men and Lesbians, the Potomac Executive Network, and the GLAA. I attend meetings and social events of these organizations whenever possible. I have agreed to serve on the Stein Democrats 30th Anniversary Reception/Fundraiser Host Committee. Additionally, I personally financially support (and will continue to support) SMYAL, the Mautner Project, and Scouting for All with fairly substantial contributions because I believe strongly in their missions. Likewise, I support D.C. Vote in part because I recognize that gay marriage is unlikely to become a reality unless D.C. has a vote in Congress.
As a Reserve Officer in the Metropolitan Police Department, I have been proud to volunteer to work assignments serving the GLBT community (e.g., the 17th Street Drag Races and Capitol Pride). Additionally, I have been an open and vocal supporter of the GLLU and its mission (I have even given a presentation about the GLLU to public safety officials from other jurisdictions in a national forum). As an official in the MPD’s Reserve Corps, I relocated one of my unit’s monthly meetings so officers in my unit could attend a function sponsored by the GLLU and the Gay Officers’ Action League (GOAL), and I have attended GOAL meetings and functions.
I have been a member of the D.C. Crystal Meth Working Group, attending meetings, the roll-out of the new crystal meth public service advertisement (which is available on my campaign website), and a BBQ fundraiser for the Working Group.
