Sheldon Mains,
Library Board
Please answer yes or
no:
1. Yes or no, do you
support legal protections for
Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender
(GLBT) citizens in the areas of:
1. Employment? Yes
2. Housing? Yes
3. Education? Yes
4. Public services? Yes
I supported these protections when I was on the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission 20 years ago and I still do.
2. Yes or no, do you
support transsexual and intersexual inclusion in
protections in the
area of:
1. Employment? Yes
2. Housing? Yes
3. Education? Yes
4. Public services? Yes
3. Yes or no, do you
support continuing the present levels of funding for
HIV/AIDS awareness
and prevention, as well as for services to those living
with HIV/AIDS?
At a minimum, we must maintain the present levels. To better reach people under 30 and to better help those living with HIV/AIDS, the funding needs to be increased. I support full access to prevention information.
4. Yes or no, do you
support a woman°s right to control her own reproductive
system, including the right to have an abortion?
Yes, and I oppose legislative intervention in abortion procedure medical decisions (For example, I oppose the proposed ban on the so called "partial birth" abortion procedures.)
5. Yes or no, do you
support affirmative action programs for women, people
with disabilities, and ethnic minorities?
Yes. To repeat my comment on item one, I supported these protections when I was on the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission 20 years ago and I still do.
6. Yes or no, do you
support rescinding the Minnesota consensual sodomy law?
Yes
7. MPLS/St. Paul
candidates, yes or no, if endorsed, would you list the
Yes, I will be proud to do so.
8. Yes or no, if you
are not endorsed, will you run against the DFL-endorsed
candidate??
9. Yes or no, do you
support the inclusion of GLBT individuals in state
protective legislation against hate crimes?
Yes
10. Yes or no, do you
support the use of tax dollars to assist in the
implementation of
GLBT sensitivity and support programs in social services
and schools, especially for our youth?
Yes. (and it would be great to provide such support to organizations like District 202)
The screening will
consist of the following questions:
11. Who or what is
your support base?
For the election: Minneapolis residents who believe that the library system can be a great resource for our community. People who support first amendment freedoms. People who want to make sure that the new downtown library and new and improved branch libraries are successful. For the DFL endorsement process, people who know me (I have a long history in the DFL) and support the above.
12. What experience
have you had with GLBT issues? Are these
issues
important to you; if so, why?
Being a straight, white male, I honestly do not know what it is like to be discriminated against or to be the subject of such intense, irrational hatred. I do have some indirect experience through friends who are members of the GLBT community. However, these issues are important to me. All individuals deserve respect and equal rights. (I do have a personal reason: A close relative has come out to me as Gay. However, he has not come out to the whole extended family, so I will respect his privacy.)
13. How do you define
homophobia?
Irrational fear of people in the GLBT community. It results in discrimination in everything including housing, religion and employment and results in hate crimes.
14. What tactics will
you undertake to combat anti-GLBT extremism?
1. Continued efforts to pass hate crime legislation that includes crimes against GLBT individuals and the GLBT community (and enforcement of existing laws where the extremism results in illegal activities.)
2. Continued use of every communications channel and opportunity to show what GLBT individuals and families and the GLBT community are really like. It's hard to have irrational fear of people you know.
3. Encouraging everyone to challenge homophobic statements and GLBT extremism whenever possible (keeping individual safety in mind).
15. What do you see
as the best strategy at the local level for achieving
benefits and
protections for GLBT families in:
1. Adoption?
2. Foster child
placement?
3. Marriage for same-sexed couples?
I believe the best strategies are:
1. Continued attempts to achieve these benefits and protections both through government (new and changed laws and through court action) and through private actions (including through increasing recognition of GLBT families in businesses and nonprofit organizations). Only through continued efforts over decades did women receive the right to vote. No matter the disappointments and frustrations, the attempts must continue.
2. Through using every opportunity to educate the general public about the GLBT community and GLBT families. It will take continuing education of the general public to ultimately achieve these benefits. With the Internet, information about the GLBT community is no longer under the exclusive control of owners of the media outlets.
16. What do you want
to accomplish as an elected official?
As a Library Board member, I hope to improve people's ability to exercise their first amendment rights: Both to access information and to produce their own books, films, articles, stories, videos, art and stories. Before the Internet, the only people who could fully exercise their first amendment rights were people who owned newspapers, radio stations or TV stations. Now, given access to the right tools, everyone can be a writer, a publisher, a producer. Everyone can tell their own stories. The Minneapolis Library System can help people get access to the tools.