Cary Silverman responds to GLAA 2008 D.C. Council questionnaire

Responses of Cary Silverman to GLAA 2008 Questionnaire
for DC Council Candidates

GLAA 2008 Rating for Cary Silverman (Possible range: +/- 10 points total)
Yes/No Substance Record Championship Total
2 4 2.5 0 8.5

PUBLIC SAFETY

1. Will you support funding for mandatory gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) sensitivity and diversity training for all members of the Metropolitan Police Department and the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department?

Yes. It is crucial that we continue to train new and existing members of the MPD and Fire and Emergency Medical Service Department. After voters elected Mayor Adrian Fenty, he called for diversity and sensitivity training in all city agencies. It is important that first responders receive this ongoing training. It is important not only for new members of the departments, but also to remind existing members about what the proper responses are to GLBT citizens who need their help. We have seen over seventy five hate crimes reported in the past two years and we know that many go unreported because of the responses some in the GLBT community expect to receive. We also know that their have been instances when fire and emergency response has been unacceptable in dealings with the GLBT community. I believe that the District is beginning to improve in this regard, but we must be constantly vigilant. Diversity and sensitivity training provided by knowledgeable instructors is a key to this effort.

2. Will you support a budget for the Office of Police Complaints large enough to continue to avoid developing a backlog of cases?

Yes. Since it opened in 2001, the Office of Police Complaints has successfully ensured citizens oversight of law enforcement. It needs not only to continue this work, but to have the funds necessary to avoid having a backlog of cases. I will make sure that these funds are always included in the budget.

3. Given MPD's controversial Neighborhood Safety Zone initiative (which set up checkpoints and barricades in the Trinidad neighborhood) and Safe Homes initiative (to knock on doors and ask to conduct warrantless gun searches), will you support efforts to rein in police officials who respond to legitimate crime concerns with short-term fixes and public relations gestures that infringe upon Fourth Amendment and other constitutionally protected civil liberties?

Yes. The city must provide sufficient police resources on a day-to-day basis and implement policies that strengthen community policing, rather than public relations programs such as “all hands on deck,” intrusions into protected civil liberties such as the neighborhood safety zones and the Safe Houses Initiative, and shifting officers from neighborhood to neighborhood when crime erupts. The city must also address the underlying causes of crime. We need to work with communities to ensure that we provide education, career training, and jobs, and drug addiction and other programs to reduce crime in the District. We need more long-term solutions and fewer “fixes” to actually make our neighborhoods safer.

4. Given that the Department of Corrections continues to violate the D.C. Human Rights Act by using genitalia as a basis for gender identification rather than an individual’s gender identity or expression, will you support the Council directly adopting a rulemaking to make it unmistakably clear that DOC must stop discriminating against transgender inmates and detainees?

Yes. The District must be progressive in working with the GLBT community. It is time that the Council insist that across the board in all agencies we recognize the rights of transgender individuals. If the Department of Corrections will not monitor itself and give explicit instructions to its employees on gender identification, then I will push the Council to adopt rulemaking that will make it mandatory that the DOC stop discriminating against transgender inmates and detainees. It is not enough to have the policy – the Mayor must ensure that it is vigorously enforced. I will insist that the Council use its oversight authority to see that this happens.

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. The drive to make HIV testing routine in the District must continue and be enhanced. Because HIV/AIDS is at epidemic proportions in DC, this must be a priority. But we have also seen over the years that testing alone, without access to counseling should a person test positive, is only half the solution. A person who tests positive must have access to immediate counseling and a referral to a treatment facility. We need to do a better job of this if we are ever to cut into the rate of HIV/AIDS in the District. We also need to make the public aware of where to go for treatment, counseling and testing, and we need better public outreach campaigns to do this. This must be a funding priority of the Council.

6. Are you committed to continuing and expanding the District’s condom distribution program to include water-based lubricant and improved tracking of their distribution to specified locations?

Yes. Condoms are the proven way to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Our condom program must include water-based lubricant. We need to track where we are distributing condoms and the usage numbers as to where the most people are accessing them.

7. The District has been 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. I understand the federal government’s reasoning to switch from a unique identifier system to names reporting system for people testing positive for HIV, but this has to be coupled with the most ironclad assurances possible that people will continue to have their medical records remain private. On the Council, I will support strengthened medical privacy laws and this would include a persons private right of action should the government violate their confidentiality. That would include both government employees and government contractors. There must be a penalty so people understand that this right to privacy may not be breached.

HUMAN RIGHTS

8. Will you support a budget for the Office of Human Rights large enough to allow it to keep the discrimination complaint backlog at or below 70 cases and keep at or below 210 days the average time it takes after the filing of a complaint to issue a finding of probable cause?

Yes. The Office of Human Rights has made progress over the years in trying to keep their backlog down, but there needs to sufficient funds each year to ensure that they can keep it below 70 cases. Too often, in the past, the timeframes for adjudication of cases has taken so long that, in some instances, by the time the cases were finally adjudicated, they became irrelevant. It is important that the city not let any case go beyond 210 days and that the agency have the necessary funds to accomplish this reasonable and achievable goal.

9. Will you block ceremonial resolutions and otherwise decline to honor individuals or organizations that promote any sort of bigotry?

Yes. When the District decides to honor individuals or organizations with a ceremonial resolution, they really must find out about the person or organization they are honoring in more detail than they currently do. It is important to make sure that we do not honor either individuals or organizations for one positive act while they are systematically practicing discrimination in their daily affairs.

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. I have always believed that when the District passes a law, we must let citizens know about it and the city must enforce it. I would suggest that every time we have a business register with the District of Columbia to do business here that we remind them of the provisions of the law with regard to the Human Rights Act that they are responsible for upholding.

11. 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. The Director of the Office of Human Rights should be required to have professional training and experience in civil rights law enforcement. Even more important, I believe that each of the staff members and commissioners must have the appropriate training and experience to do their jobs most effectively. There needs to be a delineation of responsibility within the office and on the Commission to determine the appropriate training for each individual.

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY

12. Do you support legal recognition of marriages between partners of the same sex?

Yes. I am fully in favor of marriage equality and I will support legislation to that effect when I am on the Council. I understand the reasons that a bill has not been introduced until now, but I believe that we may have reached the time, depending on the outcome of the presidential and congressional elections in November, to introduce such legislation. I recognize that Congress controls the final outcome of our legislation and I will work with the GLBT organizations in the District to ensure that we move forward together on this crucial issue in making sure that gay and lesbian residents have their full civil rights.

13. Will you support the legislative and/or regulatory changes necessary to ensure that the District recognizes marriages legally established in other jurisdictions?

Yes. We must ensure that both legal marriages and civil unions performed and sanctioned in other states are fully recognized when those individuals live in the District of Columbia. I will work to make sure that we have any legislative or regulatory changes needed to make that a reality.

14. Do you agree that private contractors doing business with the District should be required to provide domestic partner benefits including health insurance?

Yes. If we are using taxpayer money to pay private contractors, then they should be responsible to meet all the obligations we would ask government to meet and that should include providing domestic partner benefits including health insurance to their employees.

PUBLIC EDUCATION AND YOUTH

15. 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 am opposed to federal and local voucher programs. We should not be sending children to private religious schools with public funds that are exempt from the protections we afford our citizens under the DC Human Rights Act. Public money must be spent on public education. We need to focus on the basis of our democracy and that is providing a high quality public education to all children.

16. 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. I am opposed to abstinence-only sex education. I believe that under the new health education standards approved by the Board of Education, we have a responsibility to teach our children about good health practices. We cannot consider “abstinence only” programs sound education policy when we fail to teach our children how to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases. There are many reasons for my views not the least of which is the reality that no matter how much we would like to tell our children not to have sex until they marry, most will have sex at some point before marriage. If we do not teach them how to protect themselves, then many will end up with sexually transmitted diseases or become pregnant. One of the more ridiculous parts of teaching “abstinence only” education programs to students is that we know there are many gay and lesbian students in our schools. Telling these children who are prohibited from marrying in most states that they must remain celibate until marriage is like telling them they must remain celibate for life. It is absurd to say the least. An effective health education program may tell students that the only sure way to totally prevent a sexually transmitted disease or pregnancy is to abstain from sex completely, but that if they do not abstain we must teach them how to best protect themselves and their partners with safe sex practices.

CONSUMERS AND BUSINESSES

17. Do you support the right of adults in the District to choose adult-oriented entertainment for themselves, and the right of appropriately licensed and zoned businesses to provide it?

Yes. Adults should be free to make these decisions for themselves. We can legitimately try to protect our children from pornography, but as adults we can make our own decisions. I think that the Council was in error when they passed legislation that nearly made it impossible for the businesses forced to close by the new stadium to reopen anywhere else in the District. There isn’t a major capital in the world that does not have adult businesses and the District of Columbia should be no different. They can and should be zoned and required not to open next to a school or park, or in a residential area, but it is wrong to not let them open in any area which has appropriate zoning and compete as does every other legitimate business for customers. If people do not want what they sell, then they will soon close anyway.

Last year, I was instrumental in closing an adult video store, Fun Fair Video. To be perfectly clear: the basis of our action to shut down this business was that it was operating in a residential area without a proper Certificate of Occupancy or business license. It was also well known to the police and residents as an epicenter of drug sales in the neighborhood. Residents felt threatened by the drug dealing on the block and were afraid to walk outside their homes and were threaten even from their windows. My actions were not in any part motivated by the type of business at issue (in fact, neighbors never observed a patron emerge from the store with a video in hand).

18. Will you support legislation to curb abuses by NIMBYs who are now allowed to file an endless series of baseless complaints to harass or extort bars and restaurants?

Yes. As Council Member, I will introduce a set of reforms that will make the licensing process less adversarial and more efficient for both business owners and residents, and curtain the potential for abuse. I have seen abuse occur, such as where nonresidents protested the applications of BeBar, Vegetate, and Queen of Sheba, placing those businesses at risk and sending a negative message to others considering opening restaurants along the Seventh and Ninth Street Corridors.

Potential reforms include: (1) providing an option for Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, community groups, and residents to “intervene” rather than protest, so that they can have a positive dialogue with the business owner to address any actual or potential concerns without entering into a protest; (2) requiring the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board to decide protests within four to six months, unless there is good cause for an extension of not more than sixty days, so that hearings do not drag on indefinitely until a party burns out of funds for legal fees or time; and (3) a slight increase in the number of individuals required to file a protest and a proximity requirement mandating that protestants live within a three block radius of the applicant/licensee to reduce the potential for abuse.

19. What are your thoughts regarding GLAA’s proposal, as explained in Agenda: 2008, to mitigate the problems associated with prostitution by legalizing, regulating, zoning and taxing it?

I do not have a position on this issue that I want to share with GLAA at this time because I believe that, before any councilmember were to take a position, there needs to be a very open and wide-ranging public discussion on all the ramifications to the community were prostitution ever to be made legal. With all that we in the District are facing, I do not think now is the time to start this conversation.

I have like so many other people encountered prostitutes in the neighborhoods in which I have lived who clearly are on the street because they have no other choice. The issue for them is not whether they are doing something legal or illegal, but rather how they can make some money to feed and house themselves and often their children as well. This is rarely a career that someone chooses for themselves. What I believe we must do is provide other options for women, or gay and transgender youth, who find themselves on the streets as a last option. We must find a way to assist these individuals and give them food, shelter and health care without their feeling that they must resort to selling their bodies as a last option. There is also the issue of how we treat the prostitute vs. the “john” or the person who buys their services. I believe if we prosecute the prostitute, then we should also prosecute the “john.” Prostitution, like drugs, requires a buyer and a seller. To treat one differently than the other is wrong. Were this the case, it would also impact on the public discussion.

I realize that in many European countries like Germany and Holland, prostitution is legal and controlled. There are assurances that prostitutes have regular health exams to protect them and their “johns” and they are usually taxed and their business is zoned for specific areas. I am not sure that we in America are ready to do that and I think before any politician randomly takes a stance on an issue like this—either for or against—there should be much more public discussion than just a question on the GLAA questionnaire. You, of course, have a right to voice your opinion, but, as I indicated, there are much more crucial issues for the D.C. Council to deal with in the next few years than legalizing prostitution. We need to focus our time and energy on education, small business survival, dealing with health care in general and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in particular, among so many other issues.

Please provide the URL for your campaign website, if you have one. We will include it on our candidate links page.

www.caryforcouncil.org

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 RECORD OF SUPPORTING GLBT RIGHTS:

I have long supported the GLBT community and issues important to its members.

As a Commissioner and then Chairperson of the Logan Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC 2F) (2003-04), I represented a substantial GLBT constituency. I was proud to receive the Gertrude Stein endorsement of my candidacy for ANC Commissioner.

As a Commissioner, and as president of the Logan Circle Community Association, I consistently demonstrated my commitment to GLBT business owners and establishments.

I developed Logan Circle’s Alcoholic Beverage Licensing Guidelines along with a task force that included a mix of residents and business owners, gay and straight. The purpose of the guidelines was to ensure businesses were treated in a fair and consistent manner, to proactively work to forge positive relationships between businesses and the community, and to avoid lengthy protests. It has worked and I had a positive relationship with licensees along 14th and P Streets.

As a member of the Shaw Main Streets board and Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association president, I supported approval of alcoholic beverage licenses for BeBar, Vegetate, and Queen of Sheba. Prior to the November 2006 general election, I personally distributed a “Dear Neighbor” letter throughout the community that alerted voters as to the ANC Commissioners who voted to protest those license applications for all the wrong reasons.

I know how important it is to address the unacceptable rate of AIDS/HIV in the District. That is why I am a strong supporter of Pediatric AIDS/HIV Care and a contributor to the Whitman Walker Clinic. I have also supported GLBT candidates, attending the Victory Fund’s Champaign Brunch in 2007.

I will speak out whenever bigotry or homophobia raises its head. I will convene community meetings when hate crimes occur, follow up with police, and advocate for prosecution to the fullest extent of the law under the Bias-Crimes Act. For example, during my tenure as Commissioner, I intervened with police on behalf of a lesbian woman who reported a rape on Fourteenth Street to ensure a full and complete investigation.

My D.C. Council staff will include members of the GLBT community, just as my campaign leadership team includes several GLBT individuals.

###

Go to GLAA Elections Project Main Page

Page not found – GLAA

Nothing Found

sad-outline
Sorry, the page you tried to access does not exist or has changed address