R.T. Rybak’s comments to the DFL Stonewall Caucus questions:

1. If endorsed would you list the Caucus’ endorsement along with your other endorsements.

Absolutely. With pride.

2. Are you willing to make a commitment NOT to run against a DFL-endorsed candidate?

I am going to continue to talk to the delegates about the best way to address the unusual circumstances this year in which all the delegates were chosen last year, before I entered the race, preventing me from organizing for the convention. Delegates have given me a wide range of opinions on this and I will continue to listen to them as I try to find the best way to balance respect for the Party and respect for those who cannot come to this convention.

3. Are you in favor of a woman’s right to control her own reproductive system, including the right to have an abortion?

Absolutely. I have always been a strong supporter of choice, and have backed that up with political activism.

For example, a major reason I was an early and active supporter of both Gail Dorfman and Mary Rieder was because I felt both campaigns were crucial races in the battle to protect reproductive freedom and access for all woman.

I feel the most important part of this battle within the city of Minneapolis is to protect access for those with the fewest financial options.

4. Do you support extending health insurance, pension benefits, sick and bereavement pay to unmarried partners of city employees as currently afforded married heterosexuals?

Absolutely. The city can, and should, be doing more, including making this part of its legislative agenda and pursuing all legal means. This is an issue of basic human rights. It is also smart business for the city to continue to be competitive as an employer as it faces a looming worker shortage. My experience in the private sector, especially as a manager, will give me special credibility to help make this case at the Legislature and in the body of public opinion. Domestic partnership is long, long overdue.

To pass the Legislature, it needs visible public officials willing to give the time, have the focus, and build the coalitions to allow the city to do what we know is right and smart. As Mayor I will play that very visible role and bring a unique background that can help finally make this a reality.

5. Do you support city funding for the Minnesota AIDS project and the Aliveness Project?

Yes.

During my time as Publisher of The Reader and founding Publisher of Q Monthly, I was involved in helping the Minnesota AIDS project and other organizations raise money and awareness to fight AIDS. I will use that experience, and the bully pulpit of the Mayor’s office, to continue this work. I will add here a point that I will be adding to every request for funding that appears on screening documents throughout the campaign: My commitment to city funding here should represent my good faith intent. If the looming budget issues facing the city continue to worsen, I may have to review this request to restore fiscal discipline to the city.

6. Are you opposed to measures like the Minnesota Defense of Marriage Act?

Yes. As Mayor I will continue to be an active Democrat who is aggressively involved in helping to lessen the effect of issues like these, which I believe are intended to be political wedges.

7. What is your definition of family?

I define it extremely broadly to include anyone within your circle of love.

I also respect the right of everyone to define family in their own way and my actions in the Mayor’s office will reflect my commitment to protect that freedom.

8. How do you define homophobia?

Homophobia is the overt fear of gay men and lesbians. It is also the covert and unintended acts of individuals that prevents them from embracing diversity.

9. How would you promote better relations between the Police Department and the GLBT community?

When I was a reporter covering the Minneapolis Police Department in the early ‘80s, it was extremely difficult to find a person on the force who was out. In fact, I tried very hard to find a SINGLE person on the force who would be willing to talk in public about their experience to help address the deep fissure between the police and the GLBT community at the time. I couldn’t find anyone.

Without visible members of the community on the force, and without meaningful contact between the police and the community, deep wounds grew that were not healed by well-intended, but largely ineffective gestures like an annual softball game between the Police and The Saloon. We have come a long way since then, and the most important steps toward moving further is to continue to build a supportive culture on the force that makes people from every part of the city’s diverse culture feel comfortable working there, and working with the people they serve.

That’s how we build a police force that is FROM the community. Programs that provide ongoing diversity training and ongoing interaction are a key to that.

A special emphasis of mine will be to make sure the policy makers of the city are not putting the police in a position in which the police department is involved in undercover operations that could be addressed by straightforward enforcement: Back in those days of covering the police department, when nightly undercover operations targeting gay and lesbian citizens created enormous unnecessary consequences, I developed a conviction that policy makers need to strongly, clearly articulate that the best way to protect people is through straightforward enforcement.

10. What experience have you had with Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Trangender (GLBT) issues and why are they important to you?

I have had decades of personal and political experiences.

They include: growing up in a family that embraced people regardless of sexual orientation, supporting friends come out, supporting friends who are parents accept and embrace their child coming out, having friends who have died of AIDS, covering the Minneapolis Police Department as a reporter when there were serious issues separating them from the GLBT community, founding and publishing a publication focused on the GLBT community, managing a diverse workplace, diversifying a workplace that was not. The collection of these, and many others, experiences, has taught me that the issues we face are not solely political. They are about developing an embracing civic culture.

Several of these experiences will have special importance in guiding my actions as Mayor:

· As a reporter, and later when I was at the Downtown Council, I developed a close professional relationship with a city employee who was a real innovator within the system. He gave me background for my stories, helped me in my work on city planning issues, and we often talked about how to develop a greater vision for Minneapolis. He took a sudden leave and several months later I was shocked to learn he died. I would later learn he had AIDS but had been afraid to tell those around him.

The experience reinforced to me how much the community has lost to AIDS, and how important it is for us to continue to make the city a comfortable, embracing workplace in which all employees can comfortably express themselves.

We have made progress; We can make more.

· One month after becoming publisher of The Reader, I made a decision with the staff to launch a new monthly publication called Q Monthly that would focus on the GLBT community. One Reader advertiser threatened to pull his business if we went through with the new publication, and other advertisers were reporting that reps from some other media were making their case by saying “The Reader has gone gay.”

The Reader was in tough financial shape at the time and losing ANY advertising had a very serious impact.

But we moved ahead with our launch of Q Monthly and it became a labor of love for the staff, a smart business move and an important publication that developed new media voices for the GLBT community.

The staffs of both The Reader and Q Monthly became active in most GLBT events during that period---and organized many of them.

The experience gave me wonderful experience managing a diverse workplace, confidence that bigotry is the exception in this community and a well-developed working knowledge of the individuals, issues and organizations that make up the GLBT communities in Minnesota.

· Shortly after taking a job as vice president at an Internet company, it became clear to me that the company did not have a single openly gay employee. A month later I hired a woman who was leaving a very diverse workplace where there were many other lesbians. I took great care to make sure the transition for her was smooth, and I am happy to say it was. Several months later one employee came into my office to say he had never met a lesbian before then but had now become very close friends.

Having left a workplace as diverse as The Reader, this whole experience felt a bit like going back several decades in time. It taught me that there is still uncharted turf in this battle, but winning makes everyone better.

11. What will you do about affordable housing?

Creating more affordable housing will be the number one development priority of my administration. We are in a severe crisis. It will take money. It will take much more.

First, the money:

Shut down the funnel to mega development projects and restore fiscal discipline so we can direct the necessary resources to housing. We simply cannot attack this problem if we continue to overspend in other areas.

Second: Use public dollars to leverage private dollars.

Part of the crisis has been caused by the fact that over the past several decades there has been a massive drain of private dollars out of affordable housing in the city. This is especially true of individuals who own one or two buildings, who used to be the backbone of Minneapolis’ affordable housing stock. As they sell out, or board up their property, or as they stop investing in their buildings, more and more people are losing decent places to live.

My stepfather, who recently died, was one of these building owners and for 30 years over the dinner table he gave me a very good education about what it really takes to provide and maintain affordable housing. I will use this experience to help bring about the changes in tax and zoning laws, and my experience in real estate, to help develop a new generation of investors who can match public dollars spent on affordable housing with private investment.

Third: We are not in this fight alone. I will use the Mayor’s office as a bully pulpit to build an effective coalition of public and private interests that matches our investments with those from the federal government, state government, businesses, foundations and individuals.

Special allies that can continue to be mobilized are the faith-based organizations that already are key players in the fight and may, more than any other groups, be most effective in lobbying suburban communities to be more aggressive partners.

Fourth: Of special interest to this community are the tragic stories of the hundreds of homeless GLBT teenagers in Minneapolis who have either left their families, or been forced to leave their families.

I first began to understand the scope of this problem about 10 years ago when I organized a fundraiser for Project Offstreets, and it’s clear we need more resources directed to this problem. But this can’t be solved by money alone, and it’s up to all of us to create a culture in which everyone is embraced for being the person they are.

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