Responses of Alan Page to GLAA 2011 Special Election Questionnaire
for DC Council Candidates
| Yes/No | Substance | Record | Championship | Total |
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
1. In the event of congressional action leading to a ballot initiative in the District that would take away the civil marriage rights now enjoyed by same-sex couples, will you oppose the initiative and publicly campaign for the preservation of civil marriage equality?
Yes, I will oppose any ballot initiative that discriminates by sexual orientation, because the state should not be in the business of determining what type of love between consenting adults is appropriate for state recognition. The Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia determined that marriage was a right to which 14th Amendment protection extends. The District government, voters in the District (via ballot initiative) and the Congress have no power under the 14th Amendment to discriminate regarding which consenting adults have the right to marry in our city. Further, the Human Rights Act prevents the Board of Elections and Ethics from placing a discriminatory ballot initiative on the ballot and any attempt by Congress to override the power of this act might also run afoul of international human rights treaties (such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966) as well as the 14th Amendment. Not only would I vigorously campaign in public on this issue, I would urge the Office of the Attorney General to sue in federal court to enjoin the Board of Elections and Ethics from placing such a discriminatory measure on the ballot*. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". I would not allow a discriminatory ballot initiative aimed at preventing state recognition of love between my LGBT comrades in the international struggle for equality to be placed on a ballot in the District, as long as any non-violent means could prevent it (including non-violent direct action, in the King tradition). Not only would I publicly campaign against such a measure, I would be willing to face imprisonment with my LGBT comrades to prevent its presence on the ballot, fighting every step of the way with non-violent direct action and organized protest.
PUBLIC HEALTH
2. Will you support legislation giving the directors of the Office of GLBT Affairs and the Office of African Affairs the authority to issue competitive grants as other minority constituent offices have, that will be open to organizations serving the populations within the offices’ purview?
Yes, I am a strong proponent of equality. All outreach offices should have access to the same tools to serve their constituencies.
3. Describe steps you will support to improve performance at the HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD, and TB Administration (HAHSTA), including in HIV prevention, HIV/AIDS surveillance, and mental health services.
This is a challenging issue since so many District residents have contracted STDs and many live with HIV. I would work closely with Health Committee Chair David Cantania to find ways to more efficiently coordinate District agency efforts and local nonprofit efforts at condom distribution. Continued rigorous oversight of HAHSTA is also key to assure that resources budgeted for HIV prevention are most efficiently expended. Making HIV testing a standard part of the battery of tests offered at DC run health facilities when patients go in for urgent or emergency care is also a good way to raise awareness of HIV status for District residents, which will hopefully slow the spread of infection (naturally, this should appear on consent forms and patients should have the right to decline, although testing should be encouraged). Voluntary testing should be standard procedure for intake and pre-release procedures at DC Jail so that inmates know their status as they enter and exit their sentences in DC Jail, to hopefully change behavior and reduce transmission both within and outside of the Jail (free condom distribution should also be provided to inmates to prevent MSM transmission within the facility). On a more radical long-term level, I would propose legislation decriminalizing prostitution so that sex workers could unionize themselves, avoid abusive relations with employers (pimps), and engage in their trade in a more healthy, regulated environment that could sharply reduce the spread of STDs. Current Council support for such a measure is dubious, but decriminalization should be part of the public debate, as should decriminalization of drugs and the creation of a citywide needle exchange program. While decriminalization of heroin is politically unlikely in our current climate and even needle exchange is frowned upon generally in Congress [particularly the now right-leaning House], these measures should be openly debated.
PUBLIC SAFETY AND THE JUDICIARY
4. Will you support a budget for the Office of Police Complaints large enough to avoid developing a backlog of cases? Yes. The Office of Police Complaints is essential to assuring respect for the law across the city, because it demonstrates that no one is above the law, including its enforcers. Therefore, all efforts must be made to assure that the OPC budget is at a level where a backlog of cases can be avoided. One unanswered police complaint leads us down the dangerous path of individual officers believing they are above the law and individual citizens believing that there is no justice for them. On a more radical note, my stance is that the Office of Police Complaints is a step in the right direction, but that the District needs to have even more local civilian control of our police forces. I personally advocate a system whereby ANC commissioners can vote for the discharge of an officer accused of serious dereliction of duty in his or her PSA, similar to how the ANC can vote to protest the liquor license of a venue where a serious crime or breach of the peace has occurred. Police unions would fight such proposed legislation, but I believe if the police department is to truly live up to its goal to "serve and protect", the public must have actual and direct input regarding whether officers who seriously disregard their duties to protect certain segments of the population should remain employed by the city. The police department is here to protect us all, regardless of sexual orientation, race or gender [in the broadest sense, i.e. gender identity/transgender/biological gender/chosen or expressed gender]. In the near term, the GLUU should also contain an Internal Affairs liaison office dedicated expressly to investigating claims of police misconduct committed in relation to LGBT citizens.
5. Will you support efforts to rein in police officials who respond to legitimate crime concerns with unsustainable, media-centric quick fixes that infringe constitutionally protected civil liberties? And will you do so without waiting for courts to overturn them, as the U.S. Court of Appeals did to the Neighborhood Safety Zone initiative in 2009?
Yes. I would immediately hold hearings regarding any attempt to repeat any police action similar to the unconstitutional Trinidad roadblocks. I am a lawyer by profession and a lover of the Constitution by upbringing (especially as a child of two lawyers). I will not stand for arbitrary police action which detains citizens without probable cause, whether it is roadblocks, checkpoints or other arbitrary "large net" styled actions. I advocate stringent Council oversight over MPD to not only rein in abuses after they occur, but to assure that the city's position on keeping police actions constitutional is an ongoing policy that must be followed by MPD zealously.
6. Will you press for increased oversight of the Metropolitan Police Department’s gathering and analysis of crime statistics to ensure greater comprehensiveness and objectivity, including transgender-related hate crime data?
Yes. I have a strong personal interest in proper collection of hate crime data, as a student of history and a black male. A society where crimes of hate are overlooked or unrecorded sends the message to hate-filled individuals that society does not deplore their acts. I actually have spent some time researching the heroic activities of Ida B. Wells, who collected data on lynchings throughout the country at the turn of the 20th Century. Lynching was ignored then by the mainstream press and flourished. Sunlight is the antiseptic for such heinous acts. I would urge MPD to keep accurate hate crime statistics for all identifiable groups, including LGBT residents. I would also be willing to participate in public forums and press conferences to raise public awareness about particularly heinous hate crimes, to illustrate the problem we face as a city in this area. Attacking individuals because of their identity is unacceptable in any form.
HUMAN RIGHTS
7. Will you support a budget for the Office of Human Rights large enough to allow it to keep the backlog at below 70 aged cases; keep below 210 days the average time it takes to issue a probable cause finding; and expand education, prevention, and language access efforts?
Yes, I support a budget for the Office of Human Rights large enough to allow it to keep its backlog at below 70 aged cases and keep below 210 days the average time it takes to issue a probable cause finding. I also support expanding education, prevention and language access efforts.
8. Are you committed to including a transgender representative on the D.C. Commission on Human Rights?
Yes, I am committed to including a transgender representative on the DC Commission on Human Rights.
9. 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, I agree the Director of the Office on Human Rights should have professional training and experience in civil rights law enforcement. We need someone with the right background to address the crucial task of protecting civil rights for all in the District.
PUBLIC EDUCATION AND YOUTH
10. Will 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 oppose vouchers for a number of reasons, before your report gave me an additional reason (discrimination against LGBT students and teachers [and presumptively, harassment or expulsion post-admission of students and firing of teachers if LGBT status is not discovered pre-admission or pre-hiring]). I oppose vouchers (1) because District residents overwhelmingly do not want public monies expended there (2) because public funds for education should not go to private institutions that lack public oversight (3) because I believe there are Establishment Clause issues with public monies financing education that contains a religious component in its curriculum. For all of these reasons, I oppose vouchers and OSP as an inappropriate use of federal or local funds for education.
11. 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 excluding more comprehensive information?
Yes. I think teens should be provided with a range of options in sex education, from abstinence to usage of condoms to the proper usage of birth control devices and drugs, not any one option to the exclusion of others. Where abstinence is concerned, it is scientifically viable as a means to prevent one major way of transmitting HIV: intercourse, even if the option is only selected by a segment of the teen population in the District. Therefore, I do value the presence of abstinence as an option taught to teens as an HIV prevention method. I would appreciate your organization citing studies that show that abstinence programs have zero effect on deterring teen sex. Until I have such information, I will support every program that might play a role in slowing the spread of HIV infection, including teaching teens that they should abstain from sex until marriage [as part of a comprehensive program offering a range of options, including proper and consistent condom usage]. Even a 5% reduction in intercourse among teens in the District could dramatically slow HIV transmission in this population group. Every life we save and every instance of HIV transmission we can prevent is priceless.
CONSUMERS AND BUSINESSES
12. 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. I support the right of adults in the District to choose adult oriented entertainment and the right for businesses providing such entertainment to exist so long as business owners providing such entertainment properly follow all license and zoning requirements related to operating such businesses.
13. 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. I oppose any form of targeted discrimination against businesses based upon the status of clientele served therein or (otherwise legal) entertainment provided therein and would be willing to craft legislation that addresses such malicious targeting. I do support your narrowly tailored law allowing agencies to internally note the name of complainants and to flag future complaints if a pattern and practice of unfounded complaints arises, especially those that only target businesses with a specific demographic of clientele such as the LGBT community. Naturally, this law must be narrowly tailored because there is a danger in imposing a broader law limiting the number of complaints that can be filed against bars and restaurants generally, since some establishments genuinely do present a repeat and continuous threat to health and safety in the communities in which they do business; for example, if the LGBT community encountered a business whose pattern and practice was to discriminate against LGBT customers or otherwise created a dangerous environment to the LGBT community and/or others, a law limiting how many complaints could be lodged against such a business might allow it to continue to operate longer than it might have if there were no such limit.
14. What are your thoughts regarding GLAA’s proposal, explained in Agenda: 2010, to mitigate the problems associated with prostitution by legalizing and regulating it? What will you do to provide alternatives to survival sex for at-risk populations like homeless youth and transgenders?
As I stated above, I support decriminalization of prostitution. To quote my above-stated position: "On a more radical long-term level, I would propose legislation decriminalizing prostitution so that sex workers could unionize themselves, avoid abusive relations with employers (pimps), and engage in their trade in a more healthy, regulated environment that could sharply reduce the spread of STDs. Current Council support for such a measure is dubious, but decriminalization should be part of the public debate." Vocational programs targeted at homeless youth and transgenders can create safe spaces for both groups to learn the skills they need to enter the workforce (and create a space where employers can fulfill diversity mandates by hiring from a well-trained pool of transgender applicants). Additionally, entrepreneurial training can help homeless youth and transgenders start businesses that can hire their comrades and serve their communities, as well as other communities.
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.
This is my first time running for political office, so I have no prior record of addressing these issues in the District. I have worked at the Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy, which was aimed at increasing minority ownership of broadcast properties, but that has little bearing on the issues raised in your agenda (other than perhaps the possibility that LGBT-owned media properties may do a better job than non-LGBT-owned media properties of covering LGBT issues and concerns). As the Managing Editor of the Howard Law Journal, On a personal level, I have family members who are LGBT and I believe in the rights of members of the LGBT community to live and love freely. Additionally, my daughter's grandmother works extensively in HIV prevention in the District, along with several of my close friends, so I am well acquainted with how that disease has devastated both the LGBT and non-LGBT community in the District.
Thank you for allowing me to complete this questionnaire. I am committed to the civil and human rights of all District residents. I wanted you to have my answers as soon as possible. If it becomes necessary to correct any minor typographical errors I may notice on a subsequent editing of this document, I will send you a revised copy. I will also submit the printed copy with signatures on each page per your instructions (although I think this is somewhat of an environmental waste and generally try to conserve paper).
In solidarity,
/s/ Alan Page
