Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club Questionnaire for Candidates for June 2016 Dear Candidate, Congratulations on declaring your candidacy! The Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club invites you to get to know us better as we seek to learn more about you. As we plan our endorsements for the 2016 election cycle, your participation in our club questionnaire allows our membership to better understand you as a candidate: who you are, what you stand for, and what you plan to accomplish in office. There are two parts to our questionnaire, questions for which were compiled through an open process with our membership. Part 1 is a series of short-answer questions (<150 words). Part 2 is a simple Yes/No questionnaire that covers a broader set of issues than Part 1. If you feel the need, you may expand upon your responses in Part 2 on a separate sheet of paper, but you are not required to. Please return the completed questionnaire by 11:59 PM Wednesday, March 9, 2016 . E-mail all questionnaires to Political Action Committee (PAC) Chair Lee Hepner at [email protected]. If you are unable to complete the questionnaire in that timeframe, please let Lee know ASAP. Lee will be in touch to schedule a 10 minute slot (5 minute speech and the rest for questions and wrap-up) for you to address the PAC membership on Saturday, March 12, 2016 at our PAC Endorsement Interviews. If you have any questions or to reschedule, email Lee at [email protected] or call him at (415) 669-0873. Good Luck, The Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club Required Information Full Name: Zoe Dunning Office Sought: Democratic County Central Committee AD17 Mailing Address: 300 Montgomery St. #789, San Francisco, CA 94104 Phone: 415-235-7180 Email: [email protected] Website: www.zoedunning.com Are you a member of the Harvey Milk Club? Since when? Yes, since 2012 Do you identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ)? Lesbian PART 1: Short-Answer Questionnaire (Please limit responses to 5 sentences or 150 words) 1) Please describe your qualifications for the position you seek (include any key endorsements you'd like to share), plus anything else that you’d like our members to know about you and your candidacy. **add endorsements As a proud Democrat, I am steadfast in my commitment to be an advocate for social change. I resonate deeply with our party’s core values, and want to continue to play a leadership role in embedding those values throughout our city, our state and our nation. One of our values is equality and standing up and speaking out against injustice. I demonstrated my commitment to this when I challenged the military’s policies prohibiting gays from serving, by publicly coming out as a lesbian naval officer and taking a leadership role in working to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell . In 2010, I was recognized for this and given the honor of standing next to President Obama when he signed the repeal of DADT. In 2011, I was awarded Woman of the Year in Senate District 8 for my commitment to the LGBT, women’s, and veterans’ communities. I currently serve or have recently served in a number of party leadership positions: • 1st Vice Chair of the SF DCCC, unanimously elected by my peers • Chair, SF DCCC Finance Committee, helping to raise the money necessary for a strong local party • Co-Vice Chair, CA Democratic Party’s LGBT Caucus • Member, CA Democratic Party’s Finance Committee • Immediate Past Co-Chair, Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club • Former 2nd Vice Chair, CA Democratic Party’s Veterans Caucus In addition to these roles in the Democratic Party, I am honored to serve on the San Francisco Library Commission. My key endorsements include the following: Elected Officials: • David Chiu - Assemblymember, AD 17, State of California • Scott Wiener, D8 Supervisor, City and County of San Francisco • Katy Tang - D4 Supervisor, City and County of San Francisco • Alex Randolph - Trustee, City College of San Francisco • Amy Bacharach - Trustee, City College of San Francisco Democratic Party Leaders: • Mary Jung - Chair, SF DCCC • Alix Rosenthal, 2nd Vice Chair SF DCCC • Leah Pimentel, 4th Vice Chair SF DCCC Organizations: • LiUNA! Local 261 Community Leaders: • John Cleary - Co-Chair CA Democratic Party LGBT Caucus • Denise Penn - Co-Chair CA Democratic Party LGBT Caucus 2) What are your priorities and plans to address housing affordability and economic inequality in San Francisco? What have you done on this in the past, if anything? As a member of the SF DCCC, I have sponsored or voted in favor of a number of initiatives over the past four years supporting the development and availability of affordable housing. I support Mark Leno’s Ellis Act eviction legislation. 3) How do you plan to halt the accelerating displacement of African Americans from San Francisco? What do you think are the most important actions to take on this? The combination of lack of affordable housing, disproportionate unemployment, gentrification and racial discrimination all contribute to the continuing displacement of African Americans from San Francisco. Addressing these issues, particularly in the Southeast and other neighborhoods with African American residents, can help stem the tide. For many years, the African American community (e.g. NAACP) have stood by the LGBT community, it’s time for the LGBT community to stand up in solidarity with the African American Community. 4) Supervised injection facilities or drug consumption facilities have been shown to reduce new HIV and hepatitis infections, overdose deaths, and public drug use, and to increase linkage to medical care and substance use treatment, and save money, yet they remain controversial and illegal. If you are elected, what would you do to support supervised injection sites in San Francisco? I would be in favor of resolutions or legislation piloting such a program in SF. 5) Climate Change is a human rights issue, the effects of which will have disproportionately adverse consequences for marginalized communities. Describe what it means to be a local community leader in the struggle to curb Climate Change. We have to be leaders in transitioning our infrastructure and our dependence on fossil fuels, by creating incentives for alternative energies and disincentives for using fossil fuels and other contributors to Climate Change. 6) There are over 6,000 homeless individuals living on our streets. A quarter of our City’s homeless residents are chronically homeless. 71% used to be housed in San Francisco. Approximately 30% identify as LGBTQ. What will you do to address homelessness in our City if elected? Our city’s homelessness is a result of a combination of lack of affordable housing, mental illness, lack of shelter beds, domestic violence, lack of transition services for our veterans, and substance addiction, to name a few. There is no one solution. We need a comprehensive outreach program to address the causes of each homeless person’s situation, while we properly fund and carry out policy solutions for each of these issues. I would support the expansion of our Navigation Center program in SF. 7) What would you describe as your most important actions or plans to support the LGBTQ community? In 1993, I put my career on the line when I publicly came out as a lesbian naval officer. After spending 18 years working successfully for full repeal so that every gay and lesbian service member could serve openly and honestly I made history fighting and winning the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) law. I have worked hard to break down barriers impacting the transgender community. I was a leader of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which set the groundwork for opening up military service for our transgender men and women. As Co-Chair of Alice, I worked to demand our newly elected Sheriff develop and implement a process for identifying those transgender inmates who will feel safest housed based on their gender identity and, when appropriate, housing them accordingly. I will continue finding new ways to protect the rights of the LGBT community, and I pledge to support and enact policies that reflect the progressive values of the Democratic Party and of the City of San Francisco. PART 2: Yes/No Questionnaire Please check Yes or No for each question. GENERAL YES NO 1.Are you registered to vote as a Democrat? X 2.Have you ever run for elected office before? X 3.Do you have a campaign consultant or other main point of contact? If so, X who: Shwetika Baijal, 50+1 Strategies [email protected], 925-207-6632 4.Have you ever sought the Milk Club endorsement in the past? X LGBTQ ISSUES YES NO 5. Would you oppose a ballot initiative that would prohibit transgender X people from using bathroom facilities in government buildings and require the government to monitor bathroom use? 6. Do you support public funding for employment development specifically X for transgender individuals? 7. Do you support expansion of the LGBT curriculum in our City’s public X schools? 8. Do you support efforts to expand access to PrEP and other initiatives of X the “Getting to Zero” initiative to end the HIV epidemic in San Francisco? TENANT, HOUSING, AND DEVELOPMENT ISSUES YES NO 9. Do you support the expansion of rent control beyond buildings constructed prior to 1979? 10. Do you support increasing San Francisco’s inclusionary housing mandate to 25% from its current 12%? 11. Have you ever been involved as homeowner, buyer or agent in the X eviction of a tenant? If so, please explain on a separate sheet of paper.