Where the Boys Aren't
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 12, 2007; Page DZ02
The District's Gertrude Stein Democratic Club met the other day to endorse a candidate for the open Ward 7 D.C. Council seat. But there was a strange absence: None of the nine male candidates showed up.
Of the 18 candidates, only four women appeared.
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And people noticed.
Philip Pannell, a member of the club of gay, lesbian and transgender Democrats, said the reason no male candidates showed up is obvious: They are homophobic.
"You can quote me on that," Pannell said. "The fact that none of the men showed up clearly made a statement. They should realize that council members represent everybody in the ward. It was too glaring an omission for none of the Ward 7 men to show up."
Five other female candidates did not attend either.
Candidate Kirk Adair said he's not homophobic, just a little tired of attending events, especially because he is taking night classes at the University of the District of Columbia toward a master's degree in business.
"I answered their questionnaire," Adair said. "A lot of these events that I skip class for aren't worth it. . . . I'm just being real."
Yvette M. Alexander, Dorothy Douglas, Iris Toyer and Emily Y. Washington attended, Pannell said. Alexander won the club's endorsement, as did Michael A. Brown for the Ward 4 council seat and Sekou Biddle for the Board of Education. Biddle had to face candidate Martin Levine in a runoff because neither received 60 percent of the vote, Pannell said.
The endorsements differed from the top ratings earned by candidates from the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington last month.
Brown was again a winner, but Alexander and Biddle didn't make the grade, based on the organization's rating system. Top points went to Brown, Washington and Levine, as well as Ward 7 candidate Johnnie Scott Rice and school board candidate Mai Abdul Rahman.
Staff Working Off Strauss Debt
D.C.'s shadow delegation -- the elected officials who have titles but no actual seats in Congress -- have been quite busy lately, working to drum up support for Monday's voting rights march.
