Responses of Paul Strauss to GLAA 2006 Questionnaire
for DC Council Candidates
| Yes/No | Substance | Record | Championship | Total |
| 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 7 |
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 have in the past, and I will continue to in the future. Existing community groups, including HIV-focused ones can provide sensitivity training to our Fire and EMS Personnel. It is important they learn not to treat GLBT as monolithic. For example transgender people too often have challenging and difficult encounters with public safety personnel when they are most vulnerable. We have to prepare our emergency personnel and provide this additional training.
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 - Absolutely. Additionally, over 80% of the calls that come in to 911 are medical emergencies. We should not even call the head of this agency the “Fire Chief”. We need a head of our emergency services who understand this and also who can respond to the specific issues all of our communities including GLBT.
3. Will you support a budget for the Office of Police Complaints large enough to continue to avoid developing a backlog of cases?
Yes - Strongly. As Chairperson of an adjudicatory board myself, I have worked to get my budget increased to clear up a backlog. I will do the same for this Board. I also favor increasing the length of time on can permissibly file a complaint against a police officer. The present time period is too short.
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 - The unfair assumption that transgender people are prostitutes is a problem. We must correct the pattern of public safety personnel assuming transgender people are such and this can be addressed with better sensitivity training. Legislation that addresses prostitution on our streets should certainly not allow an officer to prohibit an individual from her right to move freely as he/she wishes. However our first response to prostitution must be the genuine offer of culturally-appropriate job training, housing support, and access to educational resources, health care, and HIV prevention services for these individuals who encounter unfathomable discrimination in virtually all domains of everyday life
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 - AAHP’s recent campaign to offer HIV testing to all DC residents is an important step in turning the tide and we must make good on our promise to provide immediate access health care and treatment and supportive prevention and counseling services for those who test positive. And to be clear you understand what I mean by health care, I mean a comprehensive and holistic approach to support wellness which includes behavioral health services, substance abuse treatment, and dental care.
6. Are you committed to continuing and expanding the District’s condom distribution program?
Yes. Until there’s a vaccine, prevention is our only cure. Every DC resident, including our youth, must have access to condoms. The rapid and heroic response of DC’s LGBT community to the AIDS epidemic is one of DC’s proudest moments, and the District has a solemn responsibility to work with community groups to reinvigorate grassroots efforts with public financial support.
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 - The move to reporting of HIV cases instead of AIDS will offer a modest improvement in our ability to understand the nature and extent of the epidemic in the District, but it’s important to remember that these data measure only those who get tested. All who are at risk of HIV should have access to testing, be aware that health care and supportive services will be available to them should they test positive. One of the major flaws in the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is its lack of remedy for those who have been harmed by an improper disclosure of their protected health information. We should create a private right of action to seek remedy when anyone, including government employees, improperly discloses an individual’s HIV status. Sadly, enormous stigma still attaches to an HIV positive diagnosis.
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 - A delay of almost a year to return OHR’s findings is unacceptable. If an increased budget is what is necessary to reduce the backlog, that’s what we should have. As Chairperson of an adjudicatory board myself, I have worked to get my budget increased to clear up a backlog. If needed, I will do the same for this Board. People must know that the District will take discrimination complaints seriously, and a prompt response to them is necessary to send a clear message that we have a zero tolerance policy for those who would discriminate against GLBT individuals.
9. Will you block ceremonial resolutions and otherwise decline to honor individuals or organizations that promote any sort of bigotry?
Yes. I will do anything I can to make clear bigotry has no place in the Official actions of the District Council. The Council can certainly and must refrain from any resolution or other discretionary support for hate. Again, the standard must be zero tolerance for discrimination.
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?
Absolutely. I am strongly committed to this. Who are we to judge how an individual chooses to express his/her gender? The DC Human Rights Act must be vigorously enforced.
Marriage and Family
11. Do you support legal recognition of marriages between partners of the same sex?
Yes. It is unacceptable that two people who happen to identify as being of the same gender are not afforded equal protection under the law. From access to Social Security benefits to hospital visitation rights, literally hundreds if not thousands of rights are denied same-sex couples. Our Congressional oversight means that we cannot control many of these federally-determined rights, but locally we can strongly recognize the moral right of same-sex couples to marry. I support clear position statements in support of this right, and look forward to having it become one of the first laws passed by a fully autonomous District of Columbia.
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 was a strong supporter of the recent changes to the law. I support strongly it’s continued expansion of domestic partnerships, and civil unions so that we can provide as many rights to our citizens as possible despite the oppressive Congressional constraints.
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 will do everything I can to see that this is achieved. I will support whatever legislative and regulatory changes are required. The Defense of Marriage Act is a national shame, and other States’ efforts to restrict the rights of same-sex couples should not be tolerated stand in the District of Columbia. We must be a national model of tolerance and inclusion.
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. Vouchers are not the answer. I have vigorously opposed them in the past and will continue to do so.
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 – I oppose funding for these programs. Although there is no reason youth could not be told that know that abstinence is one potential aspect of an important HIV and STI prevention strategy. However abstinence only until marriage doesn’t work. The evidence shows that kids whose only HIV education is abstinence only are more likely to engage in high-risk sex than those who participate in comprehensive sexual health education programs. And exactly what are LGBTQ kids supposed to do when they are told they should refrain from sex until they are married while having no right to marry? Are we telling these youth that they must remain celibate for their entire lives? It would be laughable if this strategy were not literally deadly. Abstinence only until marriage HIV prevention presents a clear and present danger to our youth and should not be tolerated in our schools or in our communities.
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 - Commitments were made, they should be honored. We want residents have a say in the shape and extent of commercial development activity in their neighborhoods, but the sexual orientation or gender identity or expression—or any other protected class—of customers or employees should not and must not ever be on the table. The MLB Ballpark disrupted the social fabric of the LGBT community, and our leaders have a responsibility to acknowledge the history of discrimination and intolerance and seek to ameliorate the discontinuities development of the ballpark has created.
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 – Provided it is narrowly tailored to those who seek to file baseless complaints to harass or extort. We have procedures to keep such filings out of DC Court, and we must find a way to insist that the Mayor order staff in ABRA to refuse to allow any baseless complaints filed for the purposes of harassment or extortion. Any claims based on sexual orientation or gender expression or identity, should be illegal. ABRA personnel should receive adequate training and support to expose such discrimination and work with OHR to investigate whether violations of the D.C. Human Rights Act have occurred.
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?
I am not fully set on a position on this bill. I look forward to ongoing discussions with the community. I have discussed this issue with several gay and lesbian parents and I understand that many of them support the goals of this law. There are existing protections in place for consumers of video games (as there are for movies and music) which all come clearly marked as to what age group the games are appropriate for. Parents must be responsible for the entertainment their children consume.
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.
1. In my personal and political life I have been in complete support of the LGBT Community in every elected office that I have ever held, (including ANC Commissioner, DC Democratic State Committee Member, National Convention Delegate, NPC Chairperson); any position I have been appointed to, (Member and Chairperson of the Board of Real Property Assessments and Appeals). My privately owned law firm, (Paul Strauss & Associates, P.C.), is a member of the Lambda Legal Service Providers network.
2. As DC’s Senator, I opposed and have always provided strong advocacy against the discriminatory budget riders including, but not limited to, those which restrict the rights for Domestic Partnership, Needle Exchange, Enforcement of OHR Decisions, Religious school vouchers, woman’s choice, and marriage equity.
3. My advocacy has been recognized by the Washington Blade newspaper, who has consistently identified me as a strong LGBT rights supporter, and the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, of which I am a member of as well as a strong financial and political supporter. The Stein Club has endorsed me in every election I ever ran for, (except once, when I had an LGBT opponent, and in that case they declined to make an endorsement).
