Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty says the aim of the campaign is to ‘increase awareness that abstinence from sex outside of marriage is a desirable choice for individuals to make.’ (Blade photo by Henry Linser)
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LOU CHIBBARO JR
Friday, March 16, 2007
Local gay and AIDS activists expressed concern about a proclamation issued in Washington last week by Mayor Adrian Fenty that calls for educating young people about “abstinence from sex before marriage.”
In a proclamation declaring March 10-17 Abstinence Awareness Week in the District of Columbia, Fenty said the aim of the campaign was to “increase awareness that abstinence from sex outside of marriage is a desirable choice for individuals to make.”
A coalition of religious, community and abstinence advocacy groups asked the mayor’s office to issue the proclamation as part of a campaign to address the problem of unplanned pregnancy, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases among the city’s teenage and young adult population, an official with the coalition said.
In a related development, Christopher Dyer, interim director of the Mayor’s Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Affairs, told members of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club Monday night that Fenty issued a separate proclamation this week promoting gay health issues.
The proclamation, which the mayor’s office released the next day, declares March 11-17 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Health Awareness Week. The proclamation recognizes the annual meeting this week of the National Coalition for GLBT Health, which took place in Washington.
Rebecca Fox, the coalition’s executive director, said the mayor’s office has issued a similar proclamation in past years during the organization’s annual meeting. She said Dyer arranged for the proclamation this year.
Officials with the local groups Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance and Metro Teen AIDS said they did not object to promoting abstinence among teenagers as one of several options for preventing AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases. But spokespersons for the two groups said a mayoral proclamation calling for abstinence until marriage was disparaging to gay and lesbian teens and adults because marriage is not a legal option for same-sex couples in this area.
“All of the programs at Metro Teen AIDS and our partners are strongly based in scientific research that says all sex education must begin with abstinence,” said Adam Tenner, the group’s executive director. “But our programs are also in line with every public health institution in our country when we say that ‘abstinence only’ education does not work.”
Tenner and GLAA spokesperson Rick Rosendall said that abstinence programs that fail to educate both gay and straight young people about how to protect themselves from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, through condom use and other measures, place the city’s youth in jeopardy.
Tenner pointed to a recent article by the American Academy of Pediatrics that states, “Abstinence-only programs have not demonstrated successful outcomes with regard to delayed initiation of sexual activity or use of safer sex practices.”
The mayor’s office and the director of Ultra Teen Choice, the local group that led the coalition of organizations calling on the mayor’s office to issue the abstinence proclamation, had differing accounts on who approved its wording.
When asked about the proclamation at a March 9 press conference, Fenty said the document appeared to be identical to a proclamation that former Mayor Anthony Williams began issuing in 2004.
“I think it’s been issued every year in the exact same language and we’ve apparently just reissued the exact same proclamation as we do in a number of other cases,” he said. “We’ll look at that language and work with some of the different organizations here to make sure the language reflects my position on gay marriage and the diversity of this city,” Fenty said.
But Ultra Teen Choice leader Richard Urban said a representative of his coalition submitted a draft abstinence proclamation to the mayor’s office for the first time this year.
“I’m not aware of it being previously issued,” Urban told the Blade. “Something was sent to the mayor’s office by our organizing committee. They [the mayor’s office] did look it over. It wasn’t verbatim from what we sent, but it was something like what we sent,” he said.
Stephanie Scott, director of the Mayor’s Office of the Secretary, which oversees the preparation of ceremonial services, including mayoral proclamations, could not be reached by press time.
According to Peter Rosenstein, a gay Democratic activist who worked on Fenty’s election campaign last year, Scott acknowledged that her office might not have sufficiently reviewed the text of the abstinence proclamation.
“She said this was her office’s mistake, not the mayor’s,” Rosenstein said. “She said that she or her chief of staff will more carefully review all proclamations from now on.”
City government insiders have said that in recent years the mayor’s office under Williams and Fenty has issued as many as 200 or more mayoral proclamations each month in honor of a wide range of groups and individuals. The City Council also issues a large number of proclamations and ceremonial resolutions honoring groups and individuals.
In past years, GLAA has complained that both mayoral and Council resolutions sometimes have recognized individuals and groups that have condemned homosexuality. In its election year questionnaire for local candidates running for mayor and City Council, GLAA asks the candidates if they “will refuse to issue proclamations and otherwise decline to honor individuals or organizations that promote any sort of bigotry.”
In his response to the GLAA questionnaire last year, Fenty said he would not issue proclamations to groups or individuals that promote discrimination or bigotry.
At his March 9 news conference, Fenty said the proclamation promoting abstinence until marriage does not reflect his position on same-sex marriage.
“I think everybody is pretty aware of what I said during the campaign, that I’m 100 percent in favor of gay marriage and I continue to have that position and will work to make sure my administration reflects that position,” he said.
The Abstinence Awareness Week proclamation issued by Fenty says “sexually active young people are at risk for unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and numerous other unforeseen consequences.” It notes that D.C. has the nation’s highest rate of AIDS cases.
“Whereas concerned organizations, businesses and individuals are united to make a brighter future for our children and young adults by educating them about the benefits of abstinence from sex before marriage,” the proclamation says, “Now, therefore, I, the mayor of the District of Columbia, do hereby proclaim March 10-16, 2007, as ‘Abstinence Awareness [Week]’ in Washington, D.C.”
In his proclamation honoring GLBT Health Awareness Week, Fenty calls the gay community “a vibrant and vital part of our city.” The proclamation says “many members of the LGBT community continue to face outright discrimination” from health care providers.
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