1. |
Office sought: |
2. |
Name, address, phone, fax (optional), and e-mail
address. |
3. |
Professional experience, offices held, activism on public issues: |
4. |
Do you in any way NOT support all of the following: civil marriage
(and divorce, and inheritance) for same-sex couples? A woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion? Pay
equity / comparable worth? Nondiscrimination, in staff hiring, including sexual and gender minorities? Custody and adoption
decisions based on the “good of the child,” not the gender,
orientation or gender identity of the parent(s)? If so, explain. |
5. |
What legislative actions could you support — and what personal stances will you dare to take — to change the problematic
role of prisons and prison policy in spreading HIV, if (re)elected?
Background: HIV is the leading cause of death for black women age 25-34. Black women’s HIV infection rate is
20 times that of white women, though their rates of injection drug use and unprotected sex are no higher. A major factor is
the "hyper-incarceration" of black males, including revolving door incarceration for victimless crimes. Policy and procedure
encourage HIV transmission in prison: inadequate rape prevention; unsafe drug use; bans on condoms / sex being illegal (whether
forced, consensual, or transactional); inadequate health care; unwillingness to document changes in HIV status while incarcerated.
Ex-prisoners have even less access to care or anti-retroviral drugs once released,
making them yet more likely to infect loved ones.
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6. |
Furthermore, do you support access to affordable HIV care for all — including, where appropriate, HIV prophylaxis — including state-,
county- or city-negotiated pricing and/or supply of medication? |
7. |
Sexual Reassignment Surgery: What legislative precedents can you use, if (re)elected, to make sure that this surgery is
treated on a par with other medically-necessary surgery a) by insurance companies doing business with the
city / county / commonwealth? b) by public agencies of the city / county / commonwealth?
Background: In 2014, Medicare reclassified sexual reassignment surgery as "medically necessary"
and "effective" in appropriate cases — a move hailed as "lifesaving." NY, RI, CT, VT, MA, DC, IL, CO, WA, OR, CA, NV and MN
explicitly bar State Medicaid and/or private insurance sold in those states from excluding transgender care.
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8. |
Are there any areas of employment, or any types of residence, where you feel sexual or gender minority persons are not
acceptable? If so, explain. Insofar as you support anti-discrimination: what can you do, legislatively and personally,
to promote a statewide ban on these sorts of discrimination in hiring and in housing? |
9. |
Sex Trafficking: While this is largely an enforcement issue — can legislation give additional “teeth” to local
enforcement without broad violation of
privacy rights, or penalizing the people being trafficked? How might this be done?
Background: Worldwide, 4.5 million people (98% female, 79% adult) are sexually trafficked; many more are
trafficked for indentured servitude, generally. Over 50% of US trafficking victims are not US citizens, and so are particularly
vulnerable to coercion and control. Greater Pittsburgh, other areas of PA, and the US in general, have all seen a proliferation of
"exotic massage" parlors. Many, on cursory examination, exhibit multiple “warning signs for human trafficking of particularly vulnerable
individuals.” (See http://polarisproject.org/recognize-signs and
http://traffickingresourcecenter.org/sex-trafficking-venuesindustries/fake-massage-businesses.)
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10. |
LGBTQ youth from violently-unaccepting homes, as well as victims of spousal / relationship violence, have inadequate resources
and “safe spaces” to escape. What can you do, if (re)elected, to direct resources towards
short term housing, support, and establishing the right to self-determination for coerced people? |
11. |
Given what we now know about the degree and frequency of mistakes in our criminal justice system —
can these "black holes" be defended? If not, then what can be done?
Background: There have been at least 1,733 complete exonerations — cases in which someone convicted of a
crime is cleared of all charges, based on new evidence of innocence — since 1989. The pace of exonerations is increasing
rapidly. In 15% or more of recent exonerations, false confessions had been extracted from suspects. An additional ~35% of
innocent defendants pleaded guilty before trial — the "easily led" (e.g. juveniles, people of low intellect, people with mental
illness / personality disorder) in particular. We draw the troubling conclusion: Many people — plea bargainers and convicts alike —
have been incorrectly, and irrevocably marked by the justice system. Many federal and state laws (including so-called "3-Strikes" laws,
and the Ryan's law rider to Megan's law) put people into a status where they have no further possibility of appeal — no way out.
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