Written by DCist Contributor Christopher Durocher.

If the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community has a month to call their own, it’s October. The month begins with National Coming Out Day and ends with Halloween — the gay equivalent to Christmas. It’s fitting, then, that the Mayor’s LGBT Advisory Committee used this month to present to Mayor Anthony Williams its Committee Report and Recommendations, a nine page document highlighting issues of concern to the D.C. LGBT community and outlining over a dozen policy recommendations.

In an October 19 press release, the Advisory Committee identified four key policy initiatives. Among the recommendations, the Committee highlights the need for the District to begin collecting and analyzing LGBT health and workforce data in the same manner in which it does race, ethnic and gender-specific data. According to the report, such data collection systems would make “the District healthcare services system more responsive to the needs of LGBT residents,” and “help the city understand the needs of the LGBT people in the workforce and community.” The report also points out that “[w]here discriminatory patterns are found the District may engage in educational or enforcement initiatives of the Human Rights Act,” making it clear that the recommendations are not toothless sentiments of political correctness, but rather tools to help enforce current District laws.