Q&A Sessions

GLBT people are subjected to discrimination and outright violence. Through most of history, GLBT people have been the subject of unjust social discrimination. Depression, anxiety, mental health problems and thoughts of suicide are all the results of discrimination due to homophobia, verbal abuse, hate behavior, and related social discrimination. While we celebrate some progress, all too often we are violently reminded of reality.

The tragic and unconscionable death of 22-year-old Mathew Shepard illustrates this far too well. The execution made world news. He was murdered because he was gay. It happened in the US but gay hate crimes are worldwide.

Besides direct physical and verbal abuse, stress resulting from discrimination and abuse takes a toll on mental health. There is real reason to fear that "coming out", even to health providers, might lead to discrimination. After negative past experiences and a wariness of the medical profession, GLBT people may visit health care providers less frequently than the general public. In Addition, GLBT people may be guarded about discussing their sexual behavior with health care providers. For these reasons, GLBT people generally receive less health care than the population as a whole and the quality of their care also suffers. GLBT people quite frequently have less access to health insurance, as most workplace policies do not cover unmarried partners. While improvements are happening in these areas of healthcare and other benefits, they are not at parity with benefits for heterosexual couples.

My major contact with GLBT people is at Santa Cruz High School where I teach. Often when I meet a student in my class who is either “out” or is unsure of his/her sexual preference, it turns out to be someone who has already encountered homophobic discrimination that is so prevalent, or worse. It has been my role to make these students feel safe and welcome in my classroom and to assure that the rest of the students are accepting and unbiased. Although we have had many programs of diversity training and of teaching our students, faculty, and staff to honor the rights of all people, the challenge remains.

As a Councilmember, it is my responsibility to assure that current and new legislation of this kind is completely adhered to. Being abreast of development, inviting people into discussions around those developments, and acting on them is an ongoing necessity.

Santa Cruz has such a program; I support it and will continue to do so.

I fully support necessary medical care for transgender people. Health care insurance should cover this. I also support and would work to add inclusion of corrective surgery in case of medical error. In particular, I have in mind common medical errors made on young children, frequently shortly after birth that are most often not even understood or recognized by those children until they become adults.

All people who want to adopt and fully understand, accept, and embrace the life-long responsibility for and involvement with adoptees should have the opportunity to adopt or be foster parents. And, that willingness should be welcomed by society.

• I voted for the Council resolution in support of equal marriage and will do so again for any similar or reinforcing measure.
• Whenever this subject comes up, I make it clear that I believe rights cannot be denied to any segment of the community. It seems clear that the equal protection provision of the Constitution should ultimately decide this if the courts DO actually uphold the Constitution.

I fully support groups such as BAYMEC, the Santa Cruz GLBT Alliance, and Triangle Speakers in their efforts to provide community education about GLBT issues and facts. Whenever such issues come before me in an official way, I speak out and will continue to do so to dispel misconceptions and to refute false information.

In Santa Cruz, our police officer training does include treatment of these issues. When our Citizens Police Review Board became a casualty of budget cuts, I worked hard to keep a replacement committee that would perform its function. The Public Safety Committee of the City Council has been assigned that task and I successfully sought a seat on that committee. This is the forum where concerns about police training and practices are addressed. I welcome involvement and participation of GLBT community members to address any concerns of this sort that may arise. I would still like to see growth in community involvement in setting police policy but I concede that it is a challenging effort that has plenty of room for further progress.

I invite the GLBT community to bring issues, ideas, and concerns to me either personally or by email. I am and will continue to be alert to issues that come up in the community and dialog with GLBT community representatives to resolve them.

In Santa Cruz it has been a tradition for some time for Councilmembers to participate and attend GLBT Pride celebrations. I expect to do so more frequently.

It’s important that members of the GLBT community apply for open positions. Making progress on this subject should involve better communication of the vacancies to organizations in the GLBT community and possibly some recruiting of qualified persons to serve on Santa Cruz boards and commissions. This will fit well into the idea of improved dialog that I have mentioned in other questions. The BEST way to seek such improved dialog is to schedule regular contacts, at least via email, by phone, or in person.

I have attended several June Pride celebrations and have not been able to attend the BAYMEC dinner due to other commitments. However, I look forward to attending in the future.

Absolutely! In 2000, I published it on every piece of literature I printed.

In 2000, I received these endorsements:

• John Laird, former Santa Cruz Mayor and current Cabrillo College Board member.
• Matt Friday, Chair of the 27 Democratic Assembly District Committee.
• Bruce Carlson, Vice Chair of Monterey County Democratic Central Committee

John Laird has not made endorsements in the Santa Cruz City Council race this year because there are 4 seats to be elected and more than 4 Democrats running. I have phoned Matt and Bruce, perhaps a bit belatedly but I have not yet been able to discuss a possible endorsement with them. I certainly valued the endorsement of all three in 2000. This year, as I said in 2000, I am aware of other supporters -- but I have not asked them if I could include them in response to this question. To date in 2004, I have about 200 endorsers and anticipate quite a few more. I have not yet put all of them into the list below.

• As of this date, I have been endorsed by the People’s Democratic Club (PDC) and the Santa Cruz Action Network (SCAN) for the 2004 election.
• I have been endorsed by the following 9 former mayors: Katherine Beiers, Sally DiGiralamo, Tim Fitzmaurice, Christopher Krohn, Bert Muhly, Celia Scott, Keith Sugar, Jane Weed, County Supervisor and former Mayor Mardi Wormhoudt, Former County Supervisor Gary Patton.
• The following individuals have endorsed me as of September 6th: Helen Alexander, Joan Anderson, Betty Bates, Edward Bates, Bruce Bratton, Jay Brick, Mardi Brick, Betty Broadwell, Chris Broadwell, Don Burke, Steve Carlson, Ren Curry, Paul Devereaux, Dick Doubrava, Dianne Doubrava, Sherry Eisendorf, Adrian Elich, Marie Elich, Ginny Fitzmaurice, Win Frederick, Patricia Frost, Sterling Frost, Kaitilin Gaffney, Sandra Gelman, Lee Gilbert, Daniel Gilbert, Orilla Globus, Leona Gobbo, Annette Gordon, Harold Gordon, Jacquy Griffith, Dan Haifley, Elaine Herman, Al Holbert, Denise Holbert, Ruth Hunter, Marvin Kaplan, Gloria Kaplan, Charles Keutman, June Kaufmann, Sharon King, Jim King, Nancy Knudegard, Lilly Litsky, Dianne Louie, Robert Mackey, Dorothy Mackey, Ed Manning, Pat Manning, Linda Mendez, Nancy Meyberg , Ralph Meyberg, Vera Michael, Kim Michael, Rachel O'Malley, Gary Patton, Ron Pomerantz, Sue Powell , Liz Pollock, Helen Prieto, Mathilde Rand, Dick Reichel, Sue Reynoldson, Wolfgang Rosenberg, Anita Rossman, Herb Rossman , Andy Schiffrin, Peter Scott, Glen Schaller, Sheldon Shaw, Marguerrite Shaw, Carl Stancil, Natalie Stein, Herb Stein, Fran Stekoll, Arlene Van Der Zee, Eleanor Wasson, Marion Webster, William Webster, Scott Wedge, J. Robert Wiggins, Joyce Wiggins (not a complete list)

I have always been a champion of disadvantaged groups in our society. I chose to make my career in teaching young people and trying to convey to them a vision of their own empowerment.

I think what may, at first, seem at first a trivial example Illustrates this belief and practice. It is my defense of a popular activity among teens: skateboarding. I find it amazing that leaders in our community see it as a blight that teens actually want to go to Santa Cruz High School and use their skateboards. Those "leaders" seem almost blinded to the fact that teens want to be on the high school campus, the very place where we want them to go! How can people be so blinded and fail to see the good in that phenomenon? What is so horrible about a skateboard that our young people should be unfairly stereotyped for it? Why are these adults afraid of children with skateboards?

Stereotypes are not much different regardless of the so-called "reason."

On several occasions at Santa Cruz High School, I have had students who were obviously at least unsure of their sexual orientation but had not chosen to say anything directly about that subject. I always tried to stop any harassment by classmates and create a respectful atmosphere. In one situation, even the staff showed a fear of one particular individual. It was particularly upsetting to me that they came and examined every single file that student had saved in his personal folder. If it was not so sad, it was almost humorous when they examined many photos expecting to find unacceptable imagery and, to their surprise, found numerous photos of puppies. I was quick to make the point that they had acted unjustly. At least one administrator got the point and agreed with me.

Sometimes we measure progress with small victories such as that.

I think these are good indications of my acceptance of diversity and also of the fact that our society, however caring it claims to be, is still full of unfair and discriminatory practices. Each one of us has the opportunity to, in some small way, make progress toward a better society by righting these types of wrongs.