I apologize for the error regarding the quote; my notes were unclear and my memory unfortunately failed me. Unfortunately, since I didn’t learn of that mistake before my deadline yesterday evening, the error will also appear in tomorrow’s paper, which will be corrected. I do think it was fair to identify your affiliations with the GLAA, whether or not you were speaking on behalf of the group. I have added clarification that you are a past president, Bob, and that you are VP for political affairs, Rick, and note that you did, while endorsing Jack Evans, say you weren’t speaking for the GLAA.

Councilmember Alexander supports the gay community on the easy stuff, the stuff that passes unanimously. But on hard issues like marriage and the relocation of the displaced clubs, she bails on us. How that merits an endorsement, much less an endorsement by acclamation, is beyond me. As I pointed out at Tuesday’s meeting, a vote by acclamation properly requires unanimity, which did not exist Tuesday night. How in the world can Yvette Alexander with her thin-at-best record merit an endorsement while Phil Mendelson in 2006, with his extensive and sterling gay-related record, did not? Yes, she has no challenger while Phil did in the person of Scott Bolden, whose two-faced behavior on marriage was so egregious that the Post cited it twice in its editorial endorsing Phil. We contradict our cause of equality when we hold white candidates to one standard and black candidates to another.

Yvette insisted that Jim Graham’s club relocation bill was not gay-related, yet her vote against the heavily-amended bill amounted to endorsement of the city’s erasure of the gay club zone. I pointed out that she was misrepresenting the Graham bill, which as amended explicitly limited the relocation of affected clubs to two per ward, thereby making a lie of her claim that it was all about Ward 5. By her logic, all any ward councilmember has to do to kill any bill is to claim turf on it and object to it, regardless of how extensively his or her colleagues amend it to respond to any objections.

I note that Vincent Gray last June worked quite hard to craft a compromise on the Graham bill, and voted for it when it reached the dais—in contrast to Harry Thomas, who had pressed so hard for the concessions that significantly weakened the bill. I applaud Chairman Gray for that. On the other hand, rewarding Yvette’s non-leadership discredits the Stein Club and cheapens its endorsement. As to the implication that my use of the word “betray” was over the top: when someone assures you of their support and then votes against you while denying that they are even doing it, what is it? If we never raised our voices, the gay rights movement would never have started.