Oct 31, 2008  |  By: JIM SLATTERY & JOHN ABBOT  | COMMENTS     

WE ARE AT-large Council member Carol Schwartz’s chief of staff and deputy committee clerk, and we are both gay. Having worked closely with Carol for the past decade, we can attest to the fact that when it comes to standing up for the GLBT community, Carol and her leadership have been invaluable.

Ten years ago, the two of us showed up separately to volunteer on one of Carol’s campaigns. Since then, we have become lifelong friends with each other and with Carol. We are both staunch Democrats, but in 1998 the District was in the dumps and Carol’s enthusiastic “let’s-fix-this-city” message appealed to us in a big way. “There’s no Democratic or Republican way to pick up the trash,” she would say on the campaign trail. “There’s just the right way.”

That sentiment — that there’s just a “right way” to do things — is the core of who Carol Schwartz is as a public servant and a person. And it’s not just the way she approaches nuts-and-bolts issues, it’s the way she approaches everything, including the ways she has advocated on behalf of D.C.’s gay community throughout her remarkable career.

AT ONE POINT or another, you have all likely seen Carol out and about at our events, marching in our parades or hanging out with her many gay and lesbian friends. And she’s been there behind the scenes as well, acting time and time again to protect, defend and celebrate us.

For Carol, when it comes to the GLBT community, the right way to do things has meant protecting our GLBT youth from discrimination in our public schools. The right way to do things has been to fight Congress, successfully, to end the ban that once prevented District gays and lesbians from adopting. The right way to do things has been to help raise thousands upon thousands of dollars to treat and fight HIV/AIDS during, and after, her 17 years on the Whitman-Walker Clinic Board. The right way to do things has meant speaking out against discrimination in all its forms, including the city’s recent misguided effort to exempt transgender individuals from certain protections under our Human Rights Act.

FOR SEVERAL YEARS, Carol was on the receiving end of considerable ire because she had not said “yes” publicly to gay marriage. But on that topic, we always knew her position — she wanted equal rights for us but, like many of our top GLBT activists, felt that our strong domestic partnership laws could be jeopardized with so many hostile members of Congress who have the power to undo our laws. Her personal view was never one of opposition, it was one of protectiveness.

Now all of D.C.’s GLBT community knows what we have both known all along: that when the stars align for same-sex marriage in the District, Carol will be there for all of us. In a Blade opinion piece she wrote earlier this year on this topic, Carol said, “When the day comes, and I hope it is very soon, I will be there — as always.” And we personally know that she will be — as always.

Longtime readers of the Blade know that Carol is not some “Johnny-come-lately” who panders for votes on 17th Street around election time as has certainly been the case with some others. For Carol, it’s an everyday thing. There are many good reasons why, just a couple weeks ago, Carol was voted by the Blade’s readers as this year’s Local Heroine in its Best of Gay D.C. edition. She was also named Best Straight Ally in 2003, 2004 and 2006, and last year she was runner-up in both of those categories. And in 2002, Carol was the recipient of the Human Rights Campaign’s Capital Region Community Hero Award. These honors speak volumes about Carol’s obvious devotion to, and love for, all of us. 

Therefore, we ask that you join us by writing-in CAROL SCHWARTZ on Nov. 4 and connecting the arrow beside it on your ballots. As a tenacious fighter for our city, Carol has definitely earned it. And of equal importance, our community needs Carol back on the Council as a protector, defender and loyal ally.