CityHallNews.com

Dismantling the Stonewall in Albany
Gay incumbents look beyond identity politics, but say discrimination, obstacles continue

By Christopher Moore

They’re out. They’re proud. And they’re voting.

But it is not just gay and lesbian voters transforming Manhattan politics, putting issues like gay marriage atop the city’s social agenda. It is the parents, too.

“They feel very strongly that their gay children are discriminated against—and they’re not happy about it,” Assembly Member Deborah Glick (D-Manhattan) said, describing how there are two parts of the gay voting block: the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gendered (or LGBT) community itself and the “LGBT-friendly” supporters.

Glick and fellow Manhattan Democrats Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell and State Sen. Tom Duane talked recently to City Hall about the ways in which a new block of voters, concerned about gay rights, has emerged in the city. The three openly gay elected officials also championed the rise to power of a fellow Democrat, Christine Quinn (Manhattan), the first woman and first openly gay person to serve as City Council speaker.

“I certainly think that there is a substantial number of self-identified LGBT people who specifically follow issues of concern to the community—and act accordingly,” Glick said. And then the “LGBT-friendly” advocates can be just as helpful in turning the tide of public opinion, she suggested, mentioning the value of the work done by Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard, who was murdered in a Wyoming hate crime.

Glick said her very existence on the Assembly floor has meant a lower level of homophobic rhetoric.

“And in some ways, I’m sorry,” she said.

That may sound strange, but Glick finds she’s “almost glad” when someone on the floor of the State Legislature says something hateful about gays and lesbians “because it makes it clear to other people what discrimination” is faced every day.

In the city, there is only one other openly gay member of the Council in addition to Quinn: Rosie Mendez (D-Manhattan), who succeeded her former boss, Margarita López. López and fellow Manhattan Democrat Phil Reed, who is also HIV-positive, were term-limited off the Council last year.

Even at a time of increased visibility, though, there are still no openly gay Republicans in the state legislature or on the City Council, and none from outside of Manhattan. And advocates suffered a statewide setback this year with the Court of Appeals ruling against same-sex marriage. That has left open the question of whether having gay politicians in office translates into success on issues of importance to gay constituents.

State Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) laughingly called herself “a boring, middle-aged, happily married heterosexual,” but she said it is invaluable to have colleagues who are open about their homosexuality.

“I live in the ghetto of Manhattan, where you do not think twice about having a significant gay community,” she said, adding things can be different in Albany, which is “three hours north and 25 years back.”

When the non-discrimination bill was being debated, O’Donnell pressed to include trans-gendered New Yorkers, something that led to a trip by advocates on that issue to Albany. “There were people that were freaking out that trannies were coming to visit them,” Krueger said of her fellow legislators.

After his election to the Assembly in 2002, a reporter told O’Donnell, who represents a district on the northern end of the Upper West Side, that he was the first “post-gay” politician.

“He said, ‘You are an elected official who happens to be gay, rather than a person elected to represent gay people,’” O’Donnell recalled.

“Nobody would call it a gay district, yet there were a lot of people who were interested in equality,” O’Donnell said.

While embracing issues like gay marriage, and speaking openly of his own 26-year relationship, O’Donnell bristled because he said he does not get inquiries from NY1 or the New York Times unless there’s a news story about gay issues.

“That’s the press,” he said.

But he is also happy that his presence as a gay man has helped transform the capital’s culture. He told a story related by a third party wherein two Republicans were talking in the showers about a particularly strong O’Donnell speech. The two men reportedly spoke admiringly of his work, with one adding, “On the whole, the gays are smarter and better educated than we are.”

But they do not always follow the leaders of gay organizations, according to Allen Roskoff, the president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club. Roskoff cited several examples where gay political clubs went in one direction, but voters went in another.

In last year’s mayoral primary, then-Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan) won a lot of support from gay clubs, but “Anthony Weiner won all the gay districts,” Roskoff said.

Roskoff’s rule: “There is a gay voting bloc, but I don’t think anybody tells the gay voting bloc what to do.”

Duane was the first openly gay and HIV-positive member of the Council when he was elected to that body in 1991 and remains the only openly gay member of the State Senate, to which he was elected in 1998. He sees having high-profile gay legislators leading to tangible achievements, including the passage of the state’s non-discrimination act and a hate crimes law.

“There is no doubt in my mind that having a seat at the table has an impact,” he said.

Quinn’s presence, too, has made issues resonate, as when she made a fresh attempt to get gays and lesbians into the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, a flashpoint issue for gay integration. Quinn was invited to march as Council speaker, but not as a lesbian. She refused the offer entirely.

“It gave us 100 percent of the moral high ground in terms of the way she was treated,” Duane said.

While acknowledging that there’s “a little bit of homophobia in the media,” Duane said he is asked about more than the gay agenda. He gets calls about safe and clean streets, sales taxes, the motor vehicles division and nightlife in his district.

“I have always been elected with the voters knowing that I was going to fight for civil rights for the LGBT community and for HIV and AIDS and a whole host of other things as well. And they know that that is not all I’m going to fight for,” Duane said.

Just fighting for gay and lesbian-related issues would not work for any politician, he added, “even in the Castro in San Francisco."