Category Archives: Greensboro LGBT Vote 07

Candidate responses to the InterstateQ.com LGBT Issues Questionnaire and more news & posts on the 2007 Greensboro municipal elections. Note: InterstateQ.com and its LGBT Issues Questionnaire is not affiliated with any candidate, party or political action committee.

Aug 27 1 comments
Greensboro LGBT Vote 07

LGBT Issues Questionnaire: Sandra Anderson-Groat, At-Large

Sandra Anderson-Groat
At-Large City Council Candidate

Mailing Address:
505 Daybreak Square North
Greensboro, N.C. 27455
Phone: 336-282-9047
E-mail: Sandra@sandraandersonbuilders.com
Campaign website: under construction

Question One. Economic studies have concluded that those metropolitan areas most welcoming, inclusive and supportive of their LGBT communities are more likely to attract and retain dynamic, high-paying business and young professionals. With this in mind, if you are elected would you seek to continue a commitment toward building Greensboro’s economic climate and influence by further supporting and welcoming LGBT citizens in our communities, and how would you do that?

From where I sit, our City is open and welcoming to all who want to be a part. This includes LGBT citizens. The Green Foundation is a strong organization well respected and involved with our community. We work with, for, and do business with our LGBT employers and employees in good relationships. I will continue to be supportive. I believe that all persons should be treated with respect.

Question Two. During the past year, the issue of domestic partner benefits for same-sex partners of city employees has been a hot-button issue and one much debated over by those involved in city politics. If elected to your post in the Council/as Mayor, how would you seek to protect these benefits for working class LGBT couples?

From my experience, except for some isolated calls this was not a big questions for most of this sitting Council. Any noise came and went quickly. I support these benefits. In government changes don’t occur easily so I think this issue is safe.

Question Three. Currently, Greensboro city code prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Do you support expanding the city codes to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender-identity? Do you support expanding these city codes to apply also to businesses with which the city contracts services?

I believe in equality. That means not treating anyone differently-good or bad. I agree that this should extend to no discrimination with City contracts. I do not see need for an ordinance.

Question Four. Some citizens believe that Greensboro has become a place unwelcoming of and non-inclusive to minority citizens, such as those persons of minority races and ethnicities. How would you propose to address citizens concerns over the state of our city’s reputation for racial divisiveness and what steps would you take toward beginning to heal what many may still see as an open wound?

We as a City of 140,000 people need to acknowledge and accept responsibility for this problem-individually and corporately. We must stop thinking that in order for others to be right, they must be like us. Us being all groups. This is an inside job. We must create setting and attitudes that will allow us to speak together with honesty and openness. I would try to bring groups together (in a structured program) to begin to talk together. Healing and changing is of the heart and cannot be forced.

Question Five. Would you support creating a domestic partner registry in the City of Greensboro, similar to those in effect in Chapel Hill and Carrboro that would give citizens legal recognition of their relationship for the purposes of housing, local taxes and other city services?

Yes. I see no reason why not.

_______________________________________

NOTE: All responses are un-edited and exact to the original words and responses from each candidate.

Aug 27 9 comments
Greensboro LGBT Vote 07

LGBT Issues Questionnaire: David Crawford, District 4

The first of the completed InterstateQ.com LGBT Issues Questionnaire.

David Crawford
District Four City Council Candidate

Mailing Address:
5601 Roanne Way 103
Greensboro NC 27409
Phone 336-997-5051
Email david@crawford.org
Campaign website myspace.com/davidcrawford01

FULL RESPONSES:

Question One. Economic studies have concluded that those metropolitan areas most welcoming, inclusive and supportive of their LGBT communities are more likely to attract and retain dynamic, high-paying business and young professionals. With this in mind, if you are elected would you seek to continue a commitment toward building Greensboro’s economic climate and influence by further supporting and welcoming LGBT citizens in our communities, and how would you do that?

Yes if elected I would seek to continue a commitment toward building Greensboro’s economic climate and influence by further supporting and welcoming LGBT citizens in our communities we need more LGBT clubs also, we need to start a city class that can teach non- LGBT citizenson how to ack when thay need to deal with LGBT citizen. Twenty percent of people in unmarried same-sex relationships lack health insurance, compared with 10 percent of married people !

Question Two. During the past year, the issue of domestic partner benefits for same-sex partners of city employees has been a hot-button issue and one much debated over by those involved in city politics. If elected to your post in the Council/as Mayor, how would you seek to protect these benefits for working class LGBT couples?

Domestic partnerships and same-sex marriages are much in the news these days I myself am total for same-sex partners of city employees to have benefits! I myself have a crown from a 1982 show I was in at Jim kennedy old club the power company in w-s. Domestic partnerships and same-sex marriages are much in the news these days

Whats a pain is you have people like coble in office who run there office like its 1976 and thay have on idear how to deal with same-sex marriages, people deserve the same right to marry that everybody else does. And God cares about our relationships the same way God cares about heterosexual relationships. I’ve got no problem with gay marriage! We’re talking about people like me who don’t have equality under the law and should have it, If I am elected I total will try to see that all citizens get same the same benefits for same-sex partners as all non gay city employees have!

Question Three. Currently, Greensboro city code prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Do you support expanding the city codes to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender-identity? Do you support expanding these city codes to apply also to businesses with which the city contracts services?

Yes! I once had a Winston salem city cop in 1980 bug me bad and he even push me into the back of his car, well I was pulled over due to I was on Jonestown rd at 4am, plus I at the time had just took off from the power co so I did look total female at the time, when the cop took my id he look at me then said no way you’re a boy! So he then Ask me to get in back and did I mine if he look the car over, like a nut I said hell no! well I was put in the back of his car by him! Then a 2nd cop look over my car, then the first cop pull me out by the arm and said get the hell out of here! due to this I am for a hard strong city code in gso that would help some one in the same way if it happen to them.

Question Four. Some citizens believe that Greensboro has become a place unwelcoming of and non-inclusive to minority citizens, such as those persons of minority races and ethnicities. How would you propose to address citizens concerns over the state of our city’s reputation for racial divisiveness and what steps would you take toward beginning to heal what many may still see as an open wound?

On this I total will address citizens concerns! That is why I have pick to run , I am one of the citizens with concerns I don’t see any one trying to work on so I feel if I can get in office I will no longer been a no one I can put my foot down and get something done!

Question Five. Would you support creating a domestic partner registry in the City of Greensboro, similar to those in effect in Chapel Hill and Carrboro that would give citizens legal recognition of their relationship for the purposes of housing, local taxes and other city services?

YES !

_______________________________________

NOTE: All responses are un-edited and exact to the original words and responses from each candidate.

Aug 24 6 comments
Greensboro LGBT Vote 07

Greensboro ‘not ready’ for domestic partner benefits, says Council candidate

In the on-going posting of conservative Greensboro blogger Joe Guarino’s candidate questionnaire, one including a question on the issue of domestic partner benefits for city employees, another City Council candidate has responded.

Greg Woodard, an At-Large candidate who has also agreed to complete the InterstateQ.com LGBT issues candidate questionnaire, says that Greensboro isn’t ready for domestic partnerships.

From Guarino:

7. Do you support same-sex domestic partner benefits for City employees?

No, I do not think the city is ready for it.

Oh. Really?

A major metropolitan city in North Carolina, competing with other markets sometimes five times larger than itself and struggling to keep high-paying, dynamic businesses and experienced, young professionals? Struggling to attract huge business (with more than half of all Fortune 500 companies offering similar DP benefits to their employees)? We aren’t ready for it?

Okay… I mean, whatever. If we want to be like not even a dot on the map, fine by me.

As I said, Woodard has agreed to complete the InterstateQ.com candidate questionnaire, so I hope to get a better sense of where he stands.

Previous Posts: Greensboro 2007 Elections & the Domestic Partner Issue

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Aug 24 1 comments
Greensboro LGBT Vote 07

Council candidates LGBT questionnaire update

Just a little update on the distribution of my LGBT election issues questionnaire for Greensboro City Council and Mayor candidates…

Yesterday I told you that I had called 18 and that I could get only seven of the 18 on the phone long enough (or at all) to agree to either just “take a look at it,” or completely fill it out.

This morning I finished up the calling and emailing, through all 33 City Council candidates and the two Mayor candidates. Unfortunately, I had to leave messages with most everyone I called.

I was able, however, to get 8, 9, 10 11 more candidates to commit to either “take a look at it” or fill it out.

So… all-in-all, through calling and emailing today and yesterday, as of 11:15am, I’ve only gotten 15, as of 12:45pm as of 1:45pm as of 5:30pm, I’ve gotten 18 of the 33 candidates to confirm either looking at or completing the questionnaire. Almost half – that isn’t too bad.

Those candidates I am not able to reach either by phone or email, or those who do not return my call, will just have to go ahead and receive the questionnaire through the postal service.


Aug 23 1 comments
Greensboro LGBT Vote 07

Greensboro City Council LGBT questionnaire

Today, I started the process of going through all 33 candidates for the Greensboro City Council and the two candidates for Mayor and sending out my short, five question candidate questionnaire on issues important to the Greensboro lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

You can view the questions being asked of the candidates at www.interstateq.com/candidate.html

So far, I’ve been able to only talk to, email or leave a message with 18 of the candidates. Seven of those 18 have already responded saying that they would respond to the questionnaire. I’ll continue calling and emailing tomorrow, as well as postal mailing physical copies that some of the candidates have requested.

You can view the responses and other election related posts and news:
http://www.interstateq.com/archives/category/politics/greensboro-lgbt-vote-07/

Aug 22 4 comments
Greensboro LGBT Vote 07

Council candidate Blanks’ answer to DP benefits issue lacking

Conservative Greensboro blogger Joe Guarino continues to collect responses from his City Council candidate questionnaire, including a question on the issue of domestic partner benefits for employees of the City of Greensboro.

BlanksSo far, I’ve provided two posts, one with the responses of Perkins, Green, Jones, Wilson and Carmichael and the second with the responses of Knight and Groat.

In the latest update, District 3 candidate Berkley Blanks (pictured right, credit: WXII 12 Winston-Salem), who ran unsuccessfully in the 2006 election for Sheriff, responds:

7. Do you support same-sex domestic partner benefits for City employees?

It is my political belief that this issue will be settled at the state level, such as occurred in Massachusetts.

You can see all of Blanks’ responses to Guarino’s questionnaire here.

I find it interesting that Blanks, a person who courted the LGBT community’s vote in his 2006 bid for the Sheriff’s office is now offering such a vague non-answer in his response to whether or not he supports giving LGBT citizens and employees of Greensboro the same access to healthcare and other city benefits.

In 2006, I endorsed Blanks in his bid for the Sheriff’s office. The endorsement read:

Berkley Blanks, a Democrat, has shown a strong and overwhelming public commitment to LGBT citizens of Guilford County. Blanks has attended numerous events and activities of LGBT-oriented organizations, including the Triad Business and Professional Guild. Blanks was also a participant in a community forum for a recently released LGBT policy study conducted by the Community Foundation of Raleigh.

The Replacements, Ltd. PAC, run by the owners of the company, Bob Page and his partner Dale Frederiksen, also endorsed Blanks, over the incumbent sheriff, BJ Barnes:

We like and respect BJ Barnes. However, we endorse Berkley Blanks because he is very vocal in his strong support for LGBT issues.

In fact, LGBT community members – including me – spent a lot of time talking about Blanks and supporting him for his Sheriff’s run. All-in-all, Blanks was mentioned by me no less than four separate times on my blog and an immeasurable amount of times in public and private conversations with organizations and friends and on campus at UNCG.

I find Blanks’ answer to the issue of domestic partner benefits lacking at best. I wish he’d have been a bit more forward with his answer. Supporting the LGBT community in Greensboro isn’t something that is going to lose you an election or points in an election. In fact, supporting our large, vocal and visible community (a community which, by the way, votes in high numbers and often, with thinking behind it) is likely to gain a candidate some points and push him closer to winning.

Blanks should re-think his answer and I’m sure, without a doubt, that if Blanks should appear at any future LGBT-oriented candidates’ forum or at any LGBT-oriented organization’s meeting, he will be pushed for a much better answer.

As a vibrant community that has contributed much to Greensboro and Guilford County, LGBT citizens deserve direct answers on issues of importance from candidates who seek to be our representatives.

UPDATE, August 24th 11:15am – I spoke to Mr. Blanks on the phone today where he clarified his comments and response to Joe Guarino’s candidate questionnaire. He says he truly does think that benefits for employees is a state issue and that it would and is a difficult thing to give benefits to people when the state may not recognize it. Just paraphrasing here, but be sure to stay tuned to when Blanks responds to the LGBT issues questionnaire.

Previous Posts: Greensboro 2007 Elections & the LGBT Vote

Also of note, I’ve created a new category for quicker, more easy access of posts on the LGBT vote in Greensboro’s 2007 elections: Greensboro LGBT Vote 07. Also, the category RSS Feed.

Aug 21 0 comments
Greensboro LGBT Vote 07

Update: Greensboro candidates & Domestic Partner benefits

An update on last week’s post on conservative blogger Joe Guarino’s City Council candidate questionnaires and the issue of domestic partner benefits in Greensboro: Two more candidates have responded to the questionnaire.

Bill Knight, Jr. (At-Large candidate) declined to answer the DP question when he first returned his questionnaire to Guarino but later emailed him saying, according to Joe, that “he is not in favor of the city providing its employees same-sex domestic partner benefits.” See Knight’s full questionnaire response here.

Sandra Anderson Groat (At-Large candidate) also replied, quite simply: “Yes, I do [support domestic partner benefits]. Also most large companies now provide these benefits.” See Groat’s full questionnaire response here.

Guarino flips out at Groat’s response: “She favors same-sex domestic partner benefits for city employees, and cites the provision of these benefits by “most large companies”. The fact that large companies sometimes provide these benefits, however, does not make it ethically correct. Moreover, I somehow doubt that the City of Greensboro is willing to adopt other management practices, and specifically other human resources practices, seen among large companies. Indeed, the situation is quite to the contrary. Why, then, should we feel compelled to emulate large companies on this one issue?”

Guarino’s statement – “large companies sometimes provide these benefits” – is entirely misleading. The overwhelming majority of all Fortune 500 companies offer these benefits. Large companies are not “sometimes” offering these benefits… They are without a doubt offering these benefits the majority of times.

See the previous post: Greensboro ‘07 – The LGBT Vote; candidates respond to domestic partner benefits issue

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Aug 17 4 comments
Greensboro LGBT Vote 07

Greensboro ‘07 – The LGBT Vote; candidates respond to domestic partner benefits issue

My lovely little adopted home city of Greensboro, NC, is having their municipal elections this November.

The candidates for City Council had a forum the other night with Greensboro’s Neighborhood Congress and conservative home-town blogger Joe Guarino, a person with whom I’ve had plenty of ideological disagreements, put together a short candidate questionnaire for his benefit and the benefit of his blog and readers.

Among the questions asked was whether or not the candidates supported domestic partner benefits for city employees.

The question, as it was posed by Guarino: Do you support same-sex domestic partner benefits for city employees?

I don’t know exactly why Guarino included the question, seeing as though the issue has pretty much already been laid to rest. The City Manager had the city’s health insurance policies updated to include same-sex domestic partners of city employees starting January 1, 2007. The City of Greensboro employment codes prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

A total of five candidates have responded to Guarino’s questionnaire, and the answers to his domestic partner benefit question wasn’t as good as I would have hoped.

Here are the candidates, with their district and their responses to the the domestic partner question (Links take you to the full responses the questionnaire at Guarino’s site):

At Large:

Robbie Perkins – A simple “Yes.” was Perkins’ response.

Kevin Green – Green didn’t give his personal opinion here, but rather responded with fact: “I understand that the city has a policy in place already addressing this issue.”

District 2

Lance Jones – A simple “No.” was Jones’ response.

District 3

Joe Wilson – Wilson gave a long response, but his answer is a flat out No: “NO, I think unmarried people have to take responsibility for their partners through wills and insurance policies. I don’t see where “same-sex” has anything to do with it . If you give benefits to domestic partners it shouldn’t matter what their gender make-up is. The law in N.C. doesn’t view any domestic partnership as a valid union. I tried to discover what the current policy is before answering this question and couldn’t get a single city employee to discuss it with me, this also will change when I am elected.” There are lots of issues in his answer here that I just don’t think he understands, such as the fact that same-sex couples can’t get married, it is unfair to force them to get wills and insurance policies and other legal documents when opposite-sex couples need only apply for marriage license and pay a small fee for the whole boat, and complex wills and other legal documents (which may or may not always be recognized legally after one or more of the individuals in the couple pass away) are super-expensive and definitely out of the price range of most working class people.

District 5

Angela Carmichael – Carmichael’s response was basically a No, and an unrealistic one that ignores the reality of life and this world and the situation many working class LGBT people find themselves in. Also, similar to Wilson’s response, I don’t think Carmichael understands the various issues involved in this discussion: “The only way I will support same sex domestic partners receiving benefits for city employees is if they work for the city along with their same sex domestic partner.“

I’d like, perhaps, to see Jones, Wilson and Carmichael sit down and discuss these various issues and the larger issue of LGBT equality with LGBT folks who live, work, learn and contribute to the larger community right here in Greensboro. I know I’d be glad to sit down with them and I know many other folks who have more than enough knowledge on the subject; more than me.

I understand they may have personal positions on the issue, but as folks seeking to gain elected office in order to represent a large, diverse group of people (which certainly include LGBT people), I’d like to see if they’d even be willing to sit down with LGBT citizens and community members who might just be their future constituents if they are elected.

I’m not willing to totally write them off for this election based just on one issue. I’ll be emailing them and few other folks to see if we can schedule a sit-down.

Perhaps Guilford Green Foundation can sponsor an City Council/Mayor candidates’ forum to address LGBT and diversity issues in the city and the election?

Oh… and one last musing: I wonder if any of the City Council or Mayoral candidates will be popping in to make an appearance at Triad Pride?

Previous InterstateQ.com posts on the issue:

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