Ordered to Get Help
Find Guild Officer Showed Gay Bias

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

The executive board of Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375 of District Council 37 last week voted in favor of a resolution condemning a board member's use of homophobic language and ordered him to issue an apology and undergo sensitivity training.

MITCHELL FEDER: Apology not sincere.

Sergeant At Arms David Grant apologized during the board's executive session, before the resolution was passed, for using the word "faggot" at a previous meeting. He also agreed to the sensitivity sessions.

Tapes Made Early Exit

The board was scheduled to listen to a set of tapes from the original meeting where the comments were made to determine what exactly had been said, but when the time came to play the tapes, they could not be found. Local Secretary Ahmed Shakir was in possession of the tapes but had to leave the meeting early and took the tapes with him, because he said he thought they would not be needed.

"It was a great meeting," said Local 375 President Claude Fort. "We were really united on the issue of tolerance and respect for one another. The resolution passed unanimously."

AHMED SHAKIR: Removed the evidence.

Mr. Grant was not available for comment as this newspaper went to press.

Mr. Shakir said that he took the tapes when he left the meeting because he wanted to safeguard them. "Claude was giving the president's report when I left, and I thought there wouldn't be a discussion of [the tapes]," he said.

Something to Hide?

The members who pushed for the tapes to be listened to, and for a resolution condemning the comments, said they thought that there were other reasons that the tapes were not available. "Either there were no tapes," said Jeffrey Oshins, secretary of Chapter 10 and co-chair of the union's Legislative and Political Action Committee, "or if there were tapes, they wanted to hide the fact that Claude said nothing after the bigotry."

The opposition members had wanted a sentence in the measure condemning Mr. Fort for his "lack of leadership during this embarrassing outburst," but the executive board voted to remove that sentence from the resolution. "They were playing politics with that," said Mr. Fort. "We were united on the issue of not discriminating against any member." Local 375 officials also denied that there was any intent to hide what had transpired at the September board meeting. "I believe Ahmed Shakir made a mistake," said Mr. Fort. "He left with the tape, but that did not in any way hurt the meeting."

But the opposition members charged a double standard for how members of the union leadership were treated, versus what would have happened to them. "David Grant apologized, but many of us did not feel it was sincere," said Mitchell Feder, who ran against Mr. Fort for local president. "There appears to be a double standard for individuals who support the administration. If you're a critic, they crucify you."

Insulted Roberts

He was referring in part to an incident after he criticized DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts for being "on her knees" in front of the Mayor and was made to apologize in front of the delegate assembly for the sexist connotations of that remark.

But union officials argued that the main issue was that the local had come out against bigotry and that the opposition only wanted to drag it out for their own purposes. "We don't discriminate against anyone," said Mr. Shakir. "We have a lot of gay and lesbian friends and members. The other side is so sensitive - they need the sensitivity training because they jump and attack every comment no matter what is said."