Alan Page

Candidate Name: Alan Page

Candidate Website: http://alanpagedc.com

Candidate Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Candidate Phone: 202-285-8365

1. 1.     Washington DC provides no funding for HIV/AIDS prevention that primarily emphasizes sexual abstinence rather than condom use. Recent studies (see http://urbanlifetraining.org/joomla/index.php/80-news/abstinence-education/80-abstinence-only-programs-might-work-study-says) show that this type of health education is effective. Would you support funding for abstinence-centered programs such as the one described in this study? If so, how much funding would you propose allocating on a yearly basis?

The study cited above deals specifically with the finding that teaching 12 year olds about the value of delaying sex led to only 33% of the students being taught to delay sex actually doing so, while a class teaching about same sex resulted in roughly 50% of the class delaying sexual activity. I have not been able to read the entire study to determine if other variables were at play, but assuming that all variables were controlled, this means that a class teaching 12 year olds to delay having sex based on health concerns (prevention of contraction of STDs) was successful, absent a moralizing tone or insisting that everyone should abstain until marriage. I think that these results indicate that an abstinence centered program might work as regards convincing younger middle schoolers to delay the onset of sex, but there is no evidence that this type of program would work with older District residents who comprise the vast majority of HIV/AIDS cases.

Since these classes essentially only convinced a third of the attendees to delay sex until the age of 14, I don’t believe this strategy would be very effective in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS in the District, which generally afflicts residents far older than 14. There would likely be a benefit in reducing teen pregnancy, but that is not the thrust of your question above. In our current fiscal climate, I would have to look at how widespread pregnancy rates in middle school are in the District before I allocate precious educational funds to such a measure.

1. 2.     In Wards 7 and 8, 82% of all births are outside of marriage. Out of wedlock birth has been associated with a host of negative economic, social and health issues for children and parents that experience it. What would you do to encourage more youth and adults to wait until marriage to have children?

As noted by the link in the question above, studies undertaken during the Bush administration indicated that “abstinence until marriage” programs are ineffective. The program discussed above does appear to note the success of programs that merely encourage young people to delay having sex until some unspecified point in the future (not until marriage, but just to delay sex generally). If we can get two thirds of the 12 year olds in the city to significantly delay the onset of sex until their late teens by scaling the program noted above across the public schools, we may be able to slow teenage pregnancy across the city. All empirical data, however, appears to indicate that “abstain until marriage” programs fail and I do not support investing public funds into programs that are proven not to work. We would also have to look into the empirical data regarding negative economic, social and health issues related to teen pregnancy in the District to determine how much we should spend combating teen pregnancy.

1. 3.     Teens and adults that become pregnant can tap into a number of government resources provided by the District, such as assistance on health care, housing, child care and more. What will you do to make sure that marriage is encouraged by DC laws and is not discouraged by requirements for assistance programs?

I cannot think of one public policy reason that would indicate how the city benefits from public assistance recipients being unmarried, so I would remove any requirements that recipients be unmarried, if any remain, and focus instead on household income. I would also ask the CFO to explore the potential financial impact to the city treasury of creating a tax benefit for parties filing jointly after marking “married” on their tax forms. If we can determine a potential tax value to instituting this measure (such as luring married couples from other localities to move into the District), it might make sense to enact this. Unfortunately, due to our current fiscal situation, we cannot afford to forego tax dollars by offering such incentives unless they could conceivably increase our tax base in the near future.

1. 4.     Do you support defining marriage as one man and one woman only?

I support allowing people who love one another to marry one another.  It is not the role of the state to determine what form of love should be recognized between consenting adults.

1. 5.     Do you support full voting rights for DC residents, including the right to vote on the definition of marriage?

The Human Rights Act prohibits the inclusion of discriminatory measures on the ballot in Washington DC. I support statehood for DC and the voting rights for District residents in Congress that would come with it, but I do not support the right of the majority to vote for discriminating against the minority and deciding what form of love should be recognized by the state. I have gay people in my family. It would be hypocritical for me to stand on the position that I can be married to the woman of my choice, while the gay members of my family must hide in the shadows. 

1. 6.     Recent news stories have indicated a continuing pattern of abuse of public funds by the District’s HIV/AIDS administration. Reports indicate that millions of dollars were paid to ex convicts who never provided the services paid for, or used the funds to fund procurement of property for a strip club. Yet relatively little is spent on HIV prevention, and absolutely nothing on programs that support youth who want to remain abstinent or return to abstinence.
2. A.     Do you think that the District’s HIV prevention approach is adequate, and if not, how would you change it?

The HIV prevention strategy in the District is not adequate. Middle aged Black and Latina women are the largest growing demographic of HIV infection and the District is not targeting awareness-raising efforts towards those two groups. Needleworks is a nonprofit that reportedly provided 40% of the needle exchange services in the city and it recently closed. The District needs to support needle exchange programs with grants sufficient for them to survive. As a Councilmember, I would use my oversight authority to regularly communicate with the Department of Health regarding their efforts to adopt best practices used in cities around the world to reduce the spread of HIV.

1. B.     What would you do to provide adequate and equal funding for prevention programs that promote sexual abstinence?

I believe in adopting best practices and relying on empirical data. If empirical studies indicate that there is an abstinence program that would reduce the spread of HIV among the District’s most affected populations, I would direct our resources there. Currently, no empirical study indicates this, however, so I would continue to support funding on programs that empirical data supports.

1. 7.     Do you agree that 6th and 8th grade youth should be taught the following (Current DC public school health standards:

6th grade (6.1.6) Explain that people, regardless of biological sex, gender, ability, sexual orientation, gender identity and culture, have sexual feeling and the need for love, affection and physical intimacy

8th grade (8.1.5.) Define sexual orientation, using correct terminology, and explain that as people grow and develop, they may begin to feel romantically and[/]or sexually attracted to people of a different gender and/or to people of the same gender

                        Given the median test scores in public schools and public charter schools across the District, I am not certain that the above quoted standards, if accurate, represent our most pressing educational concerns. I support the teaching of biology generally, but I would need someone to indicate to me the academic value or prioritizing the above standards among the many key items that teachers in the District’s public education system must teach to our students. Speaking as a parent myself, I think the standards above are age-appropriate for an urban middle school audience (“the need for love, affection, and physical intimacy” is particularly innocuous as a concept), however I am not certain about whether these topics hold nearly as much academic value as assuring that reading comprehension is on grade level and that students understand abstract mathematical concepts, among other areas. I also don’t think that teaching about sexual attraction in detail is needed to teach the basic biological concept of reproduction. Saying that sexual attraction leads to reproduction and perhaps detailing some animal mating rituals seems more than sufficient. Teaching romance as a concept seems outside the province of public schooling as well, as many adults don’t even agree on what that concept entails (otherwise, I’m sure our divorce rate would be lower).

1. 8.     A. Do you support abortion for minors without parental consent (the District’s current law)?

There are many complicated issues inherent in the need to allow abortion without parental consent: (1) In abuse situations, sometimes the parent himself is the father or minors no longer live with and fear being located by their abusive parent(s) (2) Some minors in the District are not raised by their parent(s) and have no idea where their parent(s) are located. (3) If a minor’s relationship with her parent is so damaged that they do not feel like they can approach their parent for consent, I do not believe the state should compel them to seek consent. In short, I support this law. Minors who are in loving households will seek consent, in my mind, and minors who are not in loving households should not be compelled to seek such consent.

B. Do you support public funding for such abortions (also the District’s current policy)

            Absent public funding, abortion would only be available for residents of a certain income demographic. Abortion is a medical procedure and women have the right to have access to medical care regardless of income.