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Friday, September 10, 2004
D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams on Wednesday signed an executive order creating a
mayoral Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Affairs and named Wanda
Alston, his special assistant for LGBT affairs, as head of the new office. Williams
said the office would have cabinet-level status, with Alston serving on the cabinet
and attending cabinet meetings with all city department and agency heads. He said
the office would be located in the District Building, which serves as D.C.’s
City Hall. Alston said one additional staff person, a full-time administrative
assistant, would be assigned to the office, with the possibility of additional
staff members in the future. “We’re raising the stakes here in the
nation’s capital, establishing a cabinet level office to address the important
concerns of lesbian and gay citizens,” Williams said at a Sept. 8 signing
ceremony in his office. “I’m proud to be establishing this office
with Wanda Alston leading it.” Williams said D.C. now joins cities like
Boston, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles that have similar offices. Like those
offices, Williams said, the D.C. office would work with the Department of Health
to monitor gay-related health concerns. The mayor’s order came one year
after the D.C. Council declined to act on a bill introduced by gay D.C. Councilmember
Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), which called for creating an LGBT affairs office through
legislation. Council action stalled on Graham’s bill after the Gay &
Lesbian Activists Alliance came out against the bill on grounds that such an office
wasn’t needed. GLAA argued that gays are politically sophisticated and capable
of lobbying the city government on their own behalf and that a mayoral LGBT office
would be beholden to the political wishes of the mayor. However, GLAA member Mario
Acosta-Velez, who spoke at the Sept. 8 ceremony where Williams signed the order,
joined other local gay activists in expressing strong support for the office,
saying it would serve as an important advocate for gay issues from within the
city government. Others attending the ceremony were Cornelius Baker, executive
director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic; Rev. Candis Shultus, pastor of the D.C.
Metropolitan Community Church; Sgt. Brett Parson, commander of the D.C. Police
Department’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit; Peter Rosenstein, a mayoral
adviser and gay Democratic Party activist; and Brian Watson, an official with
the Carl Vogel Foundation, a local AIDS service group. Graham and the activists
supporting the office said they believed gays should have a cabinet-level office
similar to the existing Latino Affairs Office and Asian-Pacific Islander Affairs
office.
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
William Campos, a Democratic contender for the District 2 County Council seat
in Prince George’s County, is winning praise from some area gay residents,
who note that he has publicly promised to support equal rights for gays, including
domestic partnership benefits for county employees. One of his opponents in
the race, Hyattsville City Councilmember Chris Currie (Ward 1), was the lone
dissenter in early June when the Hyattsville Council voted 9-1 in favor of domestic
partner benefits. Prince George’s County does not offer domestic partnership
benefits to gay couples but the issue is likely to be considered in the future.
The special election is slated for Sept. 14. Campos has raised about $30,000
from businesses and received several endorsements from elected officials, according
to a report in the Maryland Gazette.
JOE CREA
A Web site soliciting contributions from potential donors to the University
of Virginia as a means for them to demonstrate their disappointment in the school’s
domestic partnership policy closed shop earlier this month, citing the cause’s
increased awareness. But the Web site, www.dontgivetouva.com, which stopped
accepting donations before commencement last spring, collected little money
during its existence, despite receiving media attention when it launched in
February. Andrew Borchini and Andrew Bond, two UVA alumni who founded Don’t
Give, would not disclose the amount of money the site managed to raise, but
said it fell far short of the $100,000 they had planned to use toward supporting
the uninsured domestic partners of the school’s gay employees, in addition
to continued outreach efforts. “One hundred thousand dollars is a lot
of money,” Borchini told student newspaper, the Cavalier Daily. “In
terms of money, we didn’t raise much. It wasn’t much compared to
what the initial goal was.” But the 2003 graduate, who conceived of the
idea for the site in his senior thesis, also said that it received significant
attention from the school’s administration, including President John J.
Casteen, a previous opponent of domestic partner benefits. “Certainly
this is an issue that has a lot of support in the university community, and
it is one that we know affects members of our community,” said Carol Wood,
a university spokesperson. “I think we will all continue to work within
the system to see that progress is made.” Still, some associated with
the campus gay rights movement assert the site’s strong-arm tactics provoked
opponents of the benefits to donate more heavily to the school. In previous
exchanges with Borchini and Bond, Casteen cited Virginia law in defending the
school’s lack of the benefits, even though nearly every prominent university
in the nation offers DP benefits. “The Virginia Code and state policy
authorize us to provide benefits of the kind you propose to married persons,
and the Code defines marriage in conventional terms,” Casteen wrote.
ADRIAN BRUNE
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