MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
1. Will you oppose any effort to hold an initiative in the District that would take away the civil marriage rights now enjoyed by same-sex couples, and publicly campaign for marriage equality in the event such an initiative is held?
Yes, the human rights of a minority should never be put up for referendum!
This point is the essence of the historic opinion of U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker which overturned Prop 8, a tremendous victory for human rights.
2. If the District’s civil marriage equality is taken away either directly by an act of Congress or by a ballot measure, will you support immediate re-passage of civil marriage equality?
Yes, again.
3. Do you agree that private contractors doing business with the District should be required to provide equal benefits including health insurance to same-sex partners?
Of course.
4. Will you oppose legislation containing either a “conscience clause” that would allow anyone to claim a Human Rights Act exemption at will, as was proposed by Councilmember Yvette Alexander during consideration of the marriage equality bill last year; or a “business necessity” exemption that would allow taxpayer-funded charities run by religious groups to discriminate against married same-sex couples, as was proposed by the Archdiocese of Washington?
Yes, I would oppose such legislation.
PUBLIC HEALTH
5. Do you support sufficient funding to ensure that the drive to make HIV testing routine among District residents includes counseling and treatment referrals for those testing positive?
Yes. But ensuring such funding is the challenge we must confront. First federal funding should be aggressively pursued. But local funding must be boosted by restructuring our DC taxes, making them both progressive and more capable of generating revenue for essential programs by a modest tax hike for wealthy residents and by curbing corporate welfare such as unjustified tax abatements and exemptions. For my tax/revenue plan go to: www.dcstatehoodgreen.org/testimony/fairtax
6. Are you committed to continuing and expanding the District’s condom distribution program to include water-based lubricant and tracking of their distribution to specified locations?
Yes. Free or low cost contraceptive services, including counseling, should be provided in all District health care facilities. Further, this service should be widely advertised in public places, such as Metro, and on radio and TV. Free condoms should be widely distributed in public high schools, with instruction on their proper use. Education in safe and responsible sex emphasizing gender equality and respect for the diversity of sexual preference should be mandatory in public schools and other facilities.
7. 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.
8. 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.
First of all, we need competent and consistent leadership in the HIV/AIDS Administration. The resignation of Shannon Hader in July, a very well-respected public health administrator, was a serious setback in DC's efforts to control what is the worst epidemic of HIV in the country. The first priority is strong and effective leadership in this position.
The following steps should be taken to address the HIV epidemic in DC, which is a top public health priority:
- Expand syringe exchange programs, which for too long were delayed by the US Congress, leading to massive increases in HIV transmission.
- Adopt and monitor implementation of standards for HIV prevention efforts in the DC public schools, including charter schools.
- Address continuing funding shortfalls and waiting lists at APRA to ensure that drug treatment is available upon demand in DC.
- The criminalization of drug use contributes to the spread of HIV. Nearly five thousand people were arrested in DC last year on drug charges, twenty percent of all arrests. In November 2002, an overwhelming 78 percent of DC voters passed the drug treatment initiative, Measure 62. Under Measure 62 the city would provide substance abuse treatment instead of conviction or imprisonment to nonviolent defendants charged with illegal possession or use of drugs (except those drugs classified as Schedule I); provide a plan for rehabilitation to individuals accepted for substance abuse treatment; and provide for dismissal of legal proceedings for defendants upon successful completion of the treatment program. The goals of Measure 62 are widely supported by DC residents, and its implementation is long over due!
- In the FY2011 budget, the DC Department of Corrections will no longer provide a 7-day supply of medications upon release. This short-sighted decision must be reversed. While incarcerated, people should have access to the best HIV care available, as well as access to condoms, which is generally the case now. Upon release, they should be provided not only with an adequate supply of medicines, but must be directly connected with community resources to continue treatment.
- Housing and other services for people HIV and other serious medical conditions must be de-politicized. Cronyism in distribution of federal and local funds for HIV must be ended.
- DC's Healthcare Alliance system for providing health insurance for uninsured residents must be better monitored and expanded to serve a wider swath of the population. As unemployment rises, more and more people are losing access to health insurance, including those with chronic health conditions. No one in DC should be without access to quality health care. I support a single-payer health care system and will work to mobilize political support for this option, the only meaningful health care reform option. We need not wait for the federal government to act. We should implement our local single-payer program asap (the DC Statehood Green Party proposed this step several years ago).
- The privatized mental health system is often chaotic and wasteful of public funds. The elimination of government-provided mental health treatment in DC has left many people without access to services. I support a reformed, consumer-responsive public mental health system.
PUBLIC SAFETY AND THE JUDICIARY
9. Will you support funding for mandatory lesbian, gay bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) sensitivity and diversity training for all members of the Metropolitan Police Department and the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department?
Yes, This training is long overdue. Note that racist and homophobic harassment against firefighters and trainees was documented in the Fire and EMS Department (see abolishracism.blogspot.com; as a DC Statehood Green, I have spoken out several times at ERASE rallies on this issue). Incident involving the EMS and a black transgendered person should also be noted. I note that Chief Rubin has apparently made progress in addressing these concerns.
10. Will you support a budget for the Office of Police Complaints large enough to avoid developing a backlog of cases?
Yes, full funding is mandatory.
11. 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 testified to the City Council on this issue on June 18, 2008, on behalf of the DC Statehood Green Party: http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org/testimony/public_safety_civil_liberties
A selection: “The City Council likewise should be held accountable for not acting to investigate and take appropriate action to insure full respect of civil rights and liberties of our residents.
Is the unconstitutional implementation of police checkpoints in Trinidad neighborhood a surprise given the history of police violations of civil rights and liberties? I think not. Two recent examples of abuse of police powers:
Former Police Chief Ramsey ordered illegal mass arrests and lockdown of hundreds of anti-corporate globalization protesters and even bystanders who happened to be in Pershing Park, in September 2002. …The pattern of numerous police killings of District youth in recent years is much more serious, most recently resulting in the death of a 14 year, DeOnté Rawlings, in September, 2007, by an off duty policeman. District policy in such cases has simply consisted of internal review by the Police Department. Rather, such killings and allegations of police brutality should be investigated by a fully independent Civilian Review Board accountable to the public.”
Yes again.
12. Will you support maintaining the award-winning Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit with both a citywide scope and a dedicated and well-trained central core unit with a full-time sergeant?
Yes.
13. 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. Further, in addition to robust Executive and City Council oversight, we need a Civilian Review Board to hold MPD accountable.
14. Do you support making the D.C. Attorney General an elected position?
Yes, of course. The D.C. Attorney General should not be the lawyer for the Mayor, but rather serve the public interest.
HUMAN RIGHTS
15. 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, full funding and staffing for the Office of Human Rights is needed to implement this objective. Good laws are necessary but not sufficient unless timely implementation is possible.
16. Will you block ceremonial resolutions and otherwise decline to honor individuals or organizations that promote any sort of bigotry?
Yes. Homophobia, racism, sexism, and ageism must be opposed at every opportunity.
17. Are you committed to including a transgender representative on the D.C. Commission on Human Rights?
Yes. Long overdue.
18. 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 was not impressed with the Director’s remarks at a meeting of the DC Human Rights City Campaign a couple of years ago. He gave an undeserved rosy picture of the status of human rights in the District of Columbia.
PUBLIC EDUCATION AND YOUTH
19. 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 support the strict separation of church and state.
20. Will you support improved services and treatment for gay and transgender homeless youth, including transitional housing?
Yes, but again the funding issue must be addressed. A vigorous campaign for full funding for these services and other basic needs should be organized.
21. 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, by all means. Abstinence only sex education is not only ineffective but an assault on the separation of church and state because it is the self-serving agenda of the Christian Right and homophobic organizations.
CONSUMERS AND BUSINESSES
22. 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 oppose the hypocritical censorship of self-proclaimed adjudicators of what is so-called moral behavior. I also support full rights for workers in these businesses, as well as sex workers, for job protection, benefits, protection against harassment, and the right to organize into trade unions. Workers in adult businesses deserve all the same rights and protections that all other working people deserve.
23. 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 will support legislation that would require such disputes to be mediated and resolved. Specific case must be examined on their own merits. I do support reasonable restrictions on liquor store expansion.
24. 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?
Yes, this is an approach like the decriminalization of drug use. An end to the drug war is long overdue. Further, we need to integrate this approach with firm protection against the international and domestic sex trade network. I support unionization of sex workers. Of course survival sex should be discouraged by a fully funded wrap around program providing emergency shelter (reopen Franklin Shelter!), treatment for substance abuse, affordable housing and job training. [Of course, juvenile prostitution deserves priority attention. We must save these children!]
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.
I have participated in the struggle against homophobia starting as a graduate student at Brown University in the 1960s and early 1970s. In the mid 1980s I attended national gay rights demonstrations at the Mall, the Millennium/HRC March in 2000 and numerous actions since. I supported Initiative 59 and participated in several DC ACT-UP events including the funeral march for Steve Michael to the White House. I am proud of my national Green and DC Statehood Green Party’s vigorous support for human rights for GLBT people. I am a longstanding member and active participant of the Fair Budget Coalition as well as a Steering Committee member of the DC Human Rights People's Movement (follow up of the December 2008 official declaration of Washington DC as a Human Rights City). For the last 15 years I have testified at DC City Council hearings for full funding of social services including substance abuse treatment and for a progressive restructuring of DC taxes and other measures to make this possible (for my recent testimony go to: http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org/testimony/home).
My campaign URL: http://www.davidschwartzman.com
