Responses of Marc Borbely to GLAA 2006 Questionnaire
for D.C. Board of Education Candidates
| Yes/No | Substance | Record | Championship | Total |
| 2 | 4 | 1.5 | 0 | 7.5 |
1. Do you recognize the right of our public school students to organize clubs to promote gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights, to combat homophobic and transphobic violence and prejudice, and to provide socializing opportunities for GLBT youth?
Yes. Clubs can provide a safe and supportive, nurturing environment for young people to grow in – a haven from the homophobia and hostility that still exists to a great extent in the world around them. Students need an environment that is safe from harm, harassment, and that is understanding of their needs and desires. Clubs can also serve as effective organizing vehicles for projects designed to educate and sensitize peers, and to build tolerance and acceptance. Finally, they serve as support groups that can advocate for students whose rights have been violated. Clubs help promote confidence, so children emerge from school as capable, confident, strong individuals who can be sure enough of themselves to thrive, and rebel, in a world that is less than accepting of people’s differences. The gay-straight alliances that are forming at Wilson SHS are an excellent way to increase understanding between gay and straight populations.
2. Do you recognize the right of students to bring dates of the same sex to school proms and other official public school social functions?
Yes. I believe that gay men and women must be afforded all of the rights of their heterosexual counterparts – including the right to attend social functions together. It's unacceptable for people to be treated as second-class citizens because of their sexual orientation. For too long, we've forced people to deny their sexuality. When it comes to coming of age rites like prom or other official school social functions, it's an injustice to force children to choose between attending or being true to themselves. If we stopped forcing people to hide their homosexuality, being gay would become much harder to be intolerant of.
3. Will you oppose efforts to restrict or censor books or other materials in our public school libraries that discuss homosexuality in a positive and supportive manner?
Yes. We need books in our school libraries that discuss homosexuality in a positive and supportive manner, to counteract the many opposite messages prevalent in society, coming from the media, the pulpit, or the friend. The availability of such literature contributes to creating a friendlier, more welcoming, more understanding atmosphere, which will let children better understand their own – and others' – sexual orientation.
4. Do you support the right of non-profit groups to provide DCPS school libraries with gay-positive books which are openly displayed and freely available to all students?
Yes. I believe in educating our children in human sexuality and tolerance. Above all, I think that public schools should serve as a model for how to create an accepting and welcoming environment for non-majority subgroups. If public schools – built on the concept of tolerance, equality and respect -- are unable to do this, there is little hope that private institutions will ever become more sensitive to the LGBTQ community.
5. Do you support efforts by Metro DC PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) to work constructively with our local public schools to provide support groups and to help implement anti-harassment policies?
Yes. The implementation of anti-harassment policies is the best way for public schools to put forth a strong message that intolerant behavior is unacceptable. Efforts by DC FPLAG to provide support groups and help implement anti-harassment policies are vital for this. Together with sensitivity training and education, strict policies against discrimination of any kind will help serve create communities in which people feel free to be themselves.
6. Do you favor training programs for professional development of teachers, counselors, and other school system staff, such as those offered by the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL), to help these professionals nurture positive identity formation for GLBT students and prevent harassment and bullying in the classroom?
Yes. As a DCPS-certified teacher, I am woefully aware of the lack of training provided to teachers on positive identity formation and on prevention of harassment and bullying in the classroom. I felt completely ill equipped to help students with their own sexual identify formation – and often had to respond to taunting and inflammatory anti-homosexual language and comments from students. My strategy was generally to draw parallels between discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and discrimination on the basis of race. But I would have appreciated more tools and better training to help generate dialogue and foster tolerance. As a member of the BOE I would advocate for professional development of teachers that would include sensitivity and positive identity formation training. Teachers must also be encouraged to refer violations of DCMR 2503.2g-h to the administration. (This regulation makes sexual harassment a level II infraction.)
7. From time to time, D.C. public school teachers have invited openly gay men and women to speak in their classes and to answer students’ questions about homosexuality. Do you support the right of our teachers to continue inviting such speakers?
Yes. Bringing openly gay men and women into the classroom to answer questions about homosexuality is a great way to teach sensitivity and tolerance and model confidence in homosexuality. When speakers – especially those who demand respect from children, representative of all races and walks of life -- describe their own personal experiences, it becomes much more difficult to engage in discrimination. Teachers should have the right to invite speakers to their classrooms, to speak about their personal knowledge and experience.
8. The recent report by the Appleseed Foundation detailed many shortcomings in the District’s condom distribution program, as only 125,000 condoms were distributed in 2005, far below the goal of 600,000. Will you support a reinvigoration of the DCPS condom availability program, operated by the Department of Health?
Yes. Too many of my students at Spingarn and Eastern Senior High School told me that many sexually active teenagers do not use condoms. With an extraordinarily high rate of HIV infection among youth, the use of condoms is truly a life and death matter. There remains a behavioral bias against using condoms, which needs to be addressed through education and dialogue. However, easy availability will also make a difference. When teenagers have good access to condoms, they'll be much more likely to use them.
9. Will you work to implement a comprehensive sex education program in the D.C. Public Schools that teaches that homosexuality is part of the normal range of human sexuality, consistent with existing DCPS policy?
Yes. Homosexuality is part of the normal range of human sexuality, and DCPS should not hesitate to convey this to students. Discussions should be age appropriate, and respectful of cultural and religious norms to the greatest extent possible, but students should learn that being gay is not "abnormal." For a comprehensive sex education program to be most effective, there must be discussions and dialogue among faculty members and parents as well. Openness to homosexuality will generally be much slower to come by among students, if the adults they respect are not on board.
10. 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 effectively tells lesbian and gay male students that they must be celibate forever because they may not legally marry?
Yes. I oppose abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education programs that discourage the use of condoms and that ignore lesbian and gay males students who cannot legally marry. Any teaching about sex must include a healthy dose of realism: many teens will have sex whether adults accept it or not. Safe sex, including promotion and discussion of condom use, must be part of any sex education program. And any discussion about family and marriage must be sensitive to the current illegality of gay marriage in the District.
11. Do you support the full implementation of the DCPS Sexual Harassment and Harassment Policy, which protects public school students from physical and verbal abuse based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity (DCMR Title 5, Education: 2503.2.g-h)?
Yes. The greatest initial priority for implementing DCPS's sexual harassment policy is to inform students and teachers of the policy: what it says, what it means, and how it is to be enforced. Most students and teachers are unaware of its existence. Harassment of students by peers remains an ongoing and not infrequent problem. It must be addressed as soon as it occurs. I worked hard as a teacher to create a welcoming environment for my openly gay/closeted/questioning students. All teachers should be required to immediately address any verbal and physical abuse that occurs in their classroom. End-of-the-year student evaluations of teachers should be institutionalized, and these evaluations should ask, among other things, whether the teacher was able to create a safe and welcoming environment for all students.
12. Will you oppose both federally and locally funded voucher programs that fund students in religious schools that are beyond the protections of the D.C. Human Rights Act?
Yes. I am strongly opposed to any federally or locally funded voucher program that directs public funds to private schools (except for court-ordered private placements for special education students, where public schools are unable to provide the special services a child requires). I am especially opposed to supporting institutions that discriminate on the basis of religion or sexual orientation – or that have institutionalized anti-homosexual teachings. The voucher program should be ended; until this happens, the protections of the DC Human Rights Act should be extended to apply to any school in the District receiving funds and educating District children using taxpayer dollars.
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.
Emails were provided by the candidate documenting the following:
- Borbely Alerting Likely Supporters to Possible Gay Marriage Resolution
- Borbely Seeking Police Follow-up to Constituent Complaint
- Borbely Expressing Support for Human Rights Campaign
