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| Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is expected to easily win reelection
for her eighth term in Congress on Tuesday. Norton has counted on gay voters in
past elections.
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HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: LOU CHIBBARO JR. COMMENTS
 
Gay activists are evaluating the positions of candidates for the D.C. Board of
Education on issues such as same-sex dating among students and the right of students
to form gay clubs in schools in an election next week where few, if any, surprises
are expected for the big name candidates at the top of the ticket.
In a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a nine to one
margin, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is expected to defeat President
Bush in the District of Columbia by a landslide on Nov. 2, capturing the city’s
three electoral votes.
The Democratic candidates for seats on the D.C. Council who emerged as winners
in the city’s September primary are also expected to breeze to victory
over their Republican or Statehood Green Party rivals. Among them is former
mayor Marion Barry, who ousted incumbent Democrat Sandra Allen in the primary
for the Ward 8 Council seat.
All have expressed support for gay and AIDS related issues, although some have
received higher ratings than others from the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance
[see chart on Page 10], which assesses the candidates on a wide range of issues
of interest to the gay community.
The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, a local gay group, is supporting the Democratic
nominees, said club president David Meadows.
The Council’s lone Republican, Carol Schwartz, who enjoys widespread
support from Democrats, including gay residents, is set to become another winner,
according to political observers, despite her opposition to same-sex marriage.
The other at-large candidates are the Statehood Greens’ Laurent Ross
and independent Tony Dominguez.
D.C. Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), a longtime proponent
of gay rights, is the odds-on favorite to join Schwartz and the Democratic Council
candidates in victory on Nov. 2.
This leaves the races for two D.C. school board seats and dozens of contested
Advisory Neighborhood Commission seats as the only races where the winners are
yet to be determined.
Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, known as ANCs, serve as advisory bodies
on regulatory issues in neighborhoods throughout the city. They play a key role
in advising the city on the approval of licenses for nightlife and entertainment
establishments such as bars, nightclubs and restaurants.
At least 11 openly gay candidates are running for ANC seats, with some of them
on the opposite side of regulatory policies that gay nightlife advocates say
could be harmful to gay bars.
In the school board race for District 1, which includes Wards 1 and 2, four
candidates are competing for the seat being vacated by incumbent Julie Mikuta,
who announced she would not seek re-election.
Only two of the four District 1 candidates, Keenan R. Keller and Christopher
D. McKeon, completed a questionnaire on gay related school issues for GLAA,
a small group of local gay activists.
Keller received a GLAA rating of +8 while McKeon, a member of the anti-gay
Unification Church headed by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, received a –7. GLAA
rates candidates on a scale of –10 to +10.
The other two candidates, Jeff Smith and Eleanor Johnson, received a GLAA rating
of 0 because they did not return the questionnaire. Smith stated at a meeting
of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club last week that he supports gay rights
and favors the gay and AIDS related school issues.
Gay D.C. Council member Jim Graham and gay at-large school board member Mirian
Saez have endorsed Smith, saying they believe he is supportive on gay issues
and has the overall qualifications needed to serve on the school board.
“I would not have endorsed him if I thought he was not supportive on
these important issues,” Graham said.
However, during his appearance before the Stein Club, Smith did not specifically
commit himself to the policies that Keller expressed support for in the GLAA
questionnaire. Among them is a call by GLAA for the recognition of the “right
of our public school students to organize clubs to promote lesbian and gay civil
rights, to combat homophobic violence and prejudice, and to provide socializing
opportunities for gay youth.”
Other issues that Keller supported in the GLAA questionnaire include the following:
- the right of students to “bring dates of the same sex” to school
proms and other school functions;
- efforts by the gay parents group PFLAG to ...
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