Councilmember Yvette Alexander answers tough questions from Bob Summersgill at a Stein Club endorsement meeting Monday. (Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)
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JOEY DiGUGLIELMO
Friday, May 16, 2008
Fireworks erupted briefly at a Gertrude Stein Democratic Club endorsement meeting Monday night with incumbent Washington City Councilmember Yvette Alexander under attack from two long-time local gay activists.
Bob Summersgill asked Alexander, who’s straight, about gay marriage in D.C. Alexander had said previously that she supports civil unions but not marriage for gays. At Monday’s meeting she said she was open to re-considering the issue but Summersgill hammered away, telling her she must consider gays “second class.”
“It’s not a no,” she said. “You’re being awfully hard on me.”
After citing her Catholic faith, Alexander relented.
“I guess I am [for gay marriage] because I’m for equal rights,” she said.
Rick Rosendall angrily told Alexander she’d betrayed the local gay community by not supporting gay Councilmember Jim Graham’s one-time bar relocation bill that could give new life to gay bars displaced by the stadium. Alexander said she deferred to Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas on the matter since the relocation bill pertained to his ward. She also argued it wasn’t “a gay bill” but Rosendall disagreed.
“Councilmember Alexander supports our community on the easy stuff, the stuff that passes unanimously,” Rosendall said in an e-mail after the meeting. “But on the two hard issues — marriage and the relocation of the displaced clubs — she bails on us. How that merits an endorsement … by a gay club … is beyond me.”
Most Stein Club members disagreed — she won the endorsement 36-3. Stein members also voted to donate $500, the maximum allowed, to her campaign.
Other endorsements included Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans who easily won an endorsement over challenger Cary Silverman, taking 87 percent of the vote to Silverman’s 8 percent (54 to 5 respectively).
And Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, seeking a 10th term representing the District in Congress, easily won a unanimous endorsement from the club.
No endorsement was granted to either of the top two vote getters in a shadow senator race. Long-time gay activist Phil Pannell, a late entry in the race, came closest to incumbent Paul Strauss, with 20 votes (33 percent) to 32 votes (52 percent) respectively. Stein Club rules stipulate that 60 percent is needed for a club endorsement.
The club tentatively has June 16 slated for its wards 8 and 4 endorsements along with its at-large Council seat endorsement.
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