Taking the Lead
Letter to the Editor: Clearing up the DC mayoral candidates positions on gay marriage
While I appreciate Will O’Bryan covering the GLBT Mayoral Forum [“Pink Politicking,” 5/11] I would have appreciated even more if he was clear about the responses of the mayoral candidates. On the issue of gay marriage he makes it sound like they all support it. They do not. Only Adrian Fenty has supported same-sex marriage from the inception of his career and eloquently spoke about it in a past interview in Metro Weekly. Marie Johns has only come to this conclusion lately after saying two months ago that she couldn’t support it. As to Linda Cropp, Vincent Orange and Michael Brown, they have been explicit that they don’t support gay marriage in many other forums. At the GLBT forum they never answered the question directly but provided tortured responses explaining that they don’t support it because Congress wouldn’t approve it. That’s not the issue. It is a moral issue and either you are for it or not. The question wasn’t whether you would try to push it through the Council now.
O’Bryan also writes that when Brown attacked Cropp for making homophobic comments, Brown seemed to take the strategy of aiming for “the head of the pack.” Well, if he means by that the person leading the race, then he has that wrong. There aren’t many public polls, but any that have been reported in the Washington Post and other sources all have Fenty leading the race by from three to eight percentage points depending on the poll.
I think it is important for the community to be given the correct facts. Even though there were about 250 attendees at the forum, this is a far cry from the estimated well over 50,000 members of the GLBT community who live in the district and get their information from publications like Metro Weekly.
Peter D. Rosenstein
Washington, D.C.
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
