Responses of Carroll Green to GLAA 2007 Questionnaire
for DC Council Candidates
| Yes/No | Substance | Record | Championship | Total |
| 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.5 |
PUBLIC SAFETY
1. As a member of the Public Safety and Judiciary Committee, 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 would extend that training requirement for all public safety officials, to include the Metropolitan Police Department.
2. Will you press the Metropolitan Police Department to combat the transphobia entrenched within our police force, expressed in the widespread assumption among police officers that every transgendered person is a prostitute until proven otherwise?
Yes, see previous answer.
3. Will you support a budget for the Office of Police Complaints large enough to continue to avoid developing a backlog of cases?
Backlogs generally are an indication of insufficient staffing. However, given the history of our municipal government , mismanagement and incompetence are among the leading causes of malfunctioning agencies.
Should a review of this office confirms that inadequate staffing exist, I would therefore support a budget increase and establish completion targets for the compliant process.
AIDS AND PUBLIC HEALTH
4. 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. The District of Columbia is among the top ten states in AIDS reported cases per 100, 000 population.
Health departments in California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana and Wisconsin, are on the leading edge of an aids awareness project, called HIV Rapid Testing to Improve Outcomes for Partner Counseling, Testing and Referral Services.
I would welcome the implementation of a similar project in our city
5. Are you committed to continuing and expanding the District’s condom distribution program?
Yes. Any effort to help stem the tide of this public health crisis should be welcomed.
6. 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?
The right of privacy, in my view , trumps the federal push to change from a unique identifier, a challenge worthy of a fight by our elected officials.
I would support legislation to provide for a private right of action, to include individual penalties for municipal employees and contractors.
HUMAN RIGHTS
7. 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?
See answer to question 3. An effective technology upgrade, a staffing increase and/or improved management could be the appropriate fix. I agree that that 270 days should be substantially reduced
8. Will you block ceremonial resolutions and otherwise decline to honor individuals or organizations that promote any sort of bigotry?
Yes. The appearance of support of bigotry and discrimination, of any sort, should not be tolerated by any agency or branch of our municipal government.
9. 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. See previous answer.
10. Do you agree that the Director of the Office of Human Rights should be required to have professional training and experience in civil rights law enforcement?
Yes. Professional training and experience in at least one of the core missions of an office or agency, should be a minimum standard for all agency directors.
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
11. Do you support legal recognition of marriages between partners of the same sex?
While I am not against the legal recognition of marriage between same sex partners, I am steadfast against threats, subtle or otherwise, to agree with any group on any issue.
I find this especially troubling, coming from a group that is widely discriminated against across the landscape.
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. The incremental approach of the Alliance would appear to be the most practical approach in gaining full right and privileges routinely extended to the general population, given the lack of a congressional commitment to home rule for the District of Columbia.
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.
14. Will you oppose legislation giving special benefits to PEPCO until it implements an equitable domestic partner benefit program?
Yes. While PEPCO’s refusal to take advantage of tax incentives by not implementing a domestic partner program, is wholly within their rights. The firm should not other wise derive any other benefits from the DC government until there is a corporate change of heart.
I note today, 3/19/07, PEPCO has announced it will implement a domestic partner benefit program.
15. Do you agree that private contractors doing business with the District should be required to provide domestic partner programs?
Yes. This requirement could be implemented through the contracting process.
PUBLIC EDUCATION AND YOUTH
16. 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. This is yet another program that undermines the viability of the system of public education in the District of Columbia.
17. As a member of the Committee of the Whole which now has jurisdiction over the public school system, will 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. Good public policy is based on good science and the widely accepted notion of “in the public interest”.
Public policy in our city, should always be based on the public good of all of our residents, and absent of ideology of any ilk.
CONSUMERS AND BUSINESSES
18. As a member of the Public Works and Environment Committee which has jurisdiction over ABC licenses, will 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?
I have no problem supporting gay businesses or any other business relocating into appropriately zoned neighborhoods.
However, I find it presumptuous on your part, to assume that any resident that opposes the relocation of a gay bar into their neighborhood, to be homophobic.
Many of our citizens oppose the establishment of any bar in their neighborhood.
19. 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?
While the current process does appears to be unwieldy, I would support “reasonable” legislation that does not abridge the rights of residents to voice their concerns over issues that affect their neighborhoods.
The process however, should not be permitted to extend over a long period of time. One hearing and an appeal, should constitute adequate due process.
Please provide the URL for your campaign website, if you have one. We will include it on our candidate links page.
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.
My long record of activism in this city is based on the promotion of the general welfare of our citizens and the enhancement of the quality of life in our neighborhoods.
As the immediate past president of the DC Federation of Citizens Associations, as well as my many other civic endeavors, my activities are in support of all of our citizens, with out regard to sexual orientation.
Again, bigotry and discrimination, serves no useful purpose in our society, and under no circumstance, should our municipal government support such activity or give the appearance of such support.
