Responses of Bill Rice to GLAA 2006 Questionnaire
for DC Council Candidates
| Yes/No | Substance | Record | Championship | Total |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
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. I will not only support funding for GLBT sensitivity and diversity training, I will use the powers of my office (questions at hearings, letters, phone calls, personal visits to appropriate officials, budgetary actions) to make sure that this is implemented effectively.
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. This is a critical position for all District residents, visitors and businesses and I will vigorously examine, with the appropriate participation of the community, to make sure the new appointee is committed to rooting out all sexual orientation and gender-related discrimination in the Fire/EMS Department.
3. Will you support a budget for the Office of Police Complaints large enough to continue to avoid developing a backlog of cases?
Yes. And I will monitor the performance of the agency to make sure the goal is achieved.
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. And I will work to stop the harassment of transgendered persons, period.
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. This is common sense and I will work to make sure it happens.
6. Are you committed to continuing and expanding the District’s condom distribution program?
Yes. I support as-wide-as-possible distribution of condoms in public places. While we should discourage risky sexual activity, especially among teenagers, we cannot ignore the reality that it occurs and that we need to suppress its negative public health effects. I also support needle exchanges. The District Government must encourage healthy activity through public education.
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. Privacy of medical records is vital to instill confidence in people with socially-sensitive problems so they can openly and fully discuss their situation in a health care setting.
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. I will not only support funding for the Office of Human Rights, I will use the powers of my office to push the agency meet the 270-day deadline, and make it shorter to meet the 120-day statutory deadline.
9. Will you block ceremonial resolutions and otherwise decline to honor individuals or organizations that promote any sort of bigotry?
Yes. Ceremonial resolutions must reflect the District residents’ values, and not honor bigotry, discrimination or hate. I ask that you tell me about persons, organizations and activities that the Council should not recognize.
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. All District activities should follow this policy, including updated posters for businesses, schools and other public places.
Marriage and Family
11. Do you support legal recognition of marriages between partners of the same sex?
Yes. This has been my position since my first campaign in 1998. I will follow the community leadership about timing and tactics.
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 will continue working with the GLBT community to expand the domestic partnership program.
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. Couples should be able to travel freely to and from the District without worry. Again, I will look to community leaders on how best to achieve this goal.
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. My top priority is fixing our public schools, and vouchers do not help with that goal. In addition, vouchers can support activities that fall outside the D.C. Human Rights Act.
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. While abstinence education can be useful, we cannot ignore the reality that safe-sex education is absolutely essential to encourage the practice of safer-sex.
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. We must, however, make sure that the rights and opinions of residents are considered through ANCs and community groups.
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 would consider changes to reduce actions that harass businesses. The specific changes would have to be examined carefully to make sure that legitimate challenges by individuals, ANCs, and neighborhood associations are not undermined.
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. While limits on exposing young people to obscene material can be desirable, I am generally leery of government actions along these lines.
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.
Equality for all persons and fighting for progressive causes has been part of my makeup for as long as I can remember. My first job after I received my Ph.D. in chemistry, was working in New York City in the Lindsay Administration on environmental protection in the late 1960s.
When I moved to DC a few years later to take a position as an environmental analyst with the federal Department of Energy, I immediately became involved in trying to solve the city’s social and economic problems, first as a housing activist, and then as a reporter and commentator for the Washington City Paper and the NW Current. I vividly remember making calls from a townhouse in southeast on Capitol Hill to try to help stop Congress from overturning the Sexual Assault Reform Act.
I am a longtime member of Gertrude Stein Democratic club and have participated in many fundraising and political events for the gay and lesbian community. I have worked with Steve Endean, Jim Zais, Tom Chorlton, JoeTom Easley, Mel Boozer, Dave Clarke and other members of the GLBT community.
For the last six years I have been the spokesperson for the District Department of Transportation, helping to turn that dysfunctional agency into a nationally recognized state transportation department. It is this unique outside-inside experience that I will bring to the council to fight for schools we can be proud, equality for all and a better city.
