Category Archives: Michael Bloomberg

NYC march against anti-gay attacks draws thousands

anti-violence, hate crime, Greenwich Village, Mark Carson, gay news, Washington Blade

Thousands of people marched in New York City on Monday in response to Mark Carson’s murder. (Photo courtesy of Karlo)

Thousands of people marched through the streets of lower Manhattan on Monday in response to the murder of a gay Brooklyn, N.Y., man that police have categorized as a hate crime.

Elliott Morales allegedly shot Mark Carson to death on West 8th Street in Greenwich Village shortly after midnight on May 18. New York Police Department officials told the New York Times and other media outlets that Morales shouted anti-gay slurs at Carson as he and a friend were walking on nearby Sixth Avenue.

The NYPD also said Morales, whom prosecutors have charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, stalked Carson before he allegedly shot him.

“I am horrified that a gay man was murdered in Greenwich Village after being assailed by homophobic slurs,” New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said. “I stand with all New Yorkers in condemning this attack.”

Carson’s family members and Edith Windsor, the plaintiff in the case challenging the Defense of Marriage Act on which the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in March, took part in the march that began at the LGBT Community Center and ended at the spot where Morales allegedly shot the Brooklyn man to death. Gay New York City Council members Daniel Dromm and Jimmy Van Bramer and former New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson, who is among those along with Quinn who are running for mayor, also participated.

“We mourn Mark’s tragic and senseless death, and send a message that this violence must come to an end,” said LGBT Community Center Executive Director Glennda Testone.

Both the National Organization for Marriage and the Family Research Council also issued statements on Tuesday that condemned Carson’s death.

“We denounce any and all acts of unprovoked violence,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “No American should be the target of violence — period.”

Anti-gay attacks rattle New Yorkers

Carson’s murder comes against the backdrop of a string of attacks against LGBT New Yorkers in recent weeks that have sparked concern and outrage among local advocates and politicians. The most recent of these took place in lower Manhattan hours after the Greenwich Village march.

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters on Tuesday that Gornell Roman allegedly shouted anti-gay slurs at former Philadelphia party promoter Dan Contarino before he struck him several times in the head and the face around 10:45 p.m. on Monday after they visited two East Village bars and a pizza restaurant. Roman turned himself in at a Bronx police precinct late Tuesday.

Fabian Ortiz of Manhattan and Pedro Jimenez of Brooklyn allegedly shouted what Kelly described as “anti-gay derogatory statements” in Spanish and English at two men who were walking on Prince Street in Soho early Tuesday morning.

The Anti-Violence Project in a press release on Tuesday said it also continues to investigate reports of an assault against a transgender woman in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens on Monday night.

“These types of crimes are outrageous and we are going to do everything in our power to see to it that they certainly don’t occur,” Kelly said. “But if they do occur, we’re going to very aggressively investigate them and bring people to justice.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg described Carson’s murder during the press conference with Kelly as “a cold-blooded hate crime that cut short a life full of promise.” He reiterated his message that the city will do everything it can to combat bias-motivated crimes in the five boroughs.

“New York City has zero tolerance for intolerance,” Bloomberg said.

Kelly noted the number of hate crimes in the city is down almost 30 percent so far this year from the same period in 2012, but those motivated by anti-gay bias are up more than 70 percent over the same time. He also noted hate crimes often go underreported.

While Kelly noted these attacks are not related, Anti-Violence Project Executive Director Sharon Stapel told the Washington Blade on Tuesday “this kind of violence happens every day to LGBT people in New York City.” She said her organization tends to see a handful of high-profile incidents in the weeks leading up to gay Pride month each year that generate a significant amount of media attention.

“The difference between years past and this year is both the severity of the violence — including a fatality — and that there is such a great number of incidents in such a short period of time being reported by the media,” Stapel said.

The Anti-Violence Project on Friday will hold the first of its Community Safety Nights during which volunteers will canvass neighborhoods in which anti-LGBT violence has recently taken place and distribute information and other resources. This campaign will take place each Friday through June.

Quinn on Wednesday will also join Empire State Pride Agenda Executive Director Nathan Schaefer and other advocates and elected officials at a press conference on the steps of New York City Hall to urge the New York Senate to pass a bill — the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act — that would ban discrimination based on gender identity and expression before the current legislative session ends at the end of next month.

The New York Assembly earlier this month once again approved the bill.

“GENDA is part of a bigger conversation, which is the context in which this violence is happening is one in which LGBT people are not equal citizens in this country,” Stapel said.

Advocates seek ‘an end to this violence’

Yetta Kurland, who hopes to succeed Quinn on the New York City Council, told the Blade on Tuesday those who took part in the march in response to Carson’s murder were “sad and also while mourning really wanted to put an end to this violence.”

Karlo, a Manhattan make-up artist who also took part in the march, echoed Kurland.

“It doesn’t matter where oppression, homophobia, discrimination and hate crimes happen, it affects all of us,” he told the Blade. “That is why I had to be there.”

Bloomberg added all New Yorkers “can do our part to end hate crimes and spread tolerance.”

“No person regardless of what they look like or who they love should ever walk down the street in fear,” he said.

Christine Quinn formally announces NYC mayoral campaign

Gay News, Washington Blade, Christine Quinn, Gay New York

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (Photo by Thomas Good / NLN via Wikimedia Commons)

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn on Sunday officially launched her mayoral campaign.

“Today I’m announcing, making it official, that I’m running for mayor of the city of New York,” she said in a video posted to her campaign website. “I’m running because I love this city. It is the greatest place in the world.”

Quinn mentioned in the video she was executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project in the late 1990s. She also referenced her grandparents who immigrated from Ireland a century ago and her mother’s long battle with breast cancer when she was a child.

“My mother’s life and death left me with a belief that our obligation is to use every moment we have on this earth to make it a better place, to make other people’s lives better, to make sure nobody is left behind because they might need a little more help,” Quinn said.

A Quinnipiac University poll released late last month finds Quinn, who would become the city’s first female and openly gay mayor, leads New York City Public Advocate Bill De Blasio and other leading Democratic challengers. The survey also found 63 percent of respondents are comfortable with a gay mayoral candidate.

Quinn told the Washington Blade last September LGBT issues remain an integral part of her agenda.

She introduced a bill in 2004 to require city contractors to offer equal benefits to registered same-sex domestic partners and married heterosexual couples. Quinn also worked with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Department of Education to implement an anti-bullying curriculum in the city’s public schools.

Quinn has frequently spoken out against anti-LGBT violence in the five boroughs — and she joined other New York City officials who criticized then-Puerto Rico Gov. Luís Fortuño for what they contend was his unwillingness to stop anti-LGBT violence on the island in the wake of gay teenager Jorge Steven López Mercado’s 2009 murder.

She also continues to boycott the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade because organizers prohibit gay men and lesbians from marching.

Quinn, who married her long-time partner Kim Catullo last May, told the Blade “one could feel the joy on the streets” after the New York’s same-sex marriage law passed in 2011.

“We had the opportunity to publicly commit in a legal ceremony in front of our family and friends, that we are a couple, we are family,” she said. “We are just as important as any other family. I will always be grateful for that day and remember that day for the rest of my life.”

In spite of her advocacy on these and other issues, Quinn has faced criticism from LGBT Democrats and other progressives over her support of the extension of term-limits that allowed the mayor, herself and other city officials to run for a third-term.

She acknowledged in 2008 a City Council slush fund appropriated more than $17 million to community organizations that did not exist. Quinn sparked further controversy last July when she demanded the president of New York University remove Chick-fil-A from campus in response to CEO Dan Cathy’s opposition to marriage rights for same-sex couples.

“Speaker Christine Quinn running for mayor of New York City creates an exciting and historic opportunity for LGBT people in New York,” Melissa Sklarz, president of the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City, told the Blade. “Having an out lesbian like Chris succeeding in this campaign will send a message around the world that homophobia and politics do not mix in the 21st century.”

“We are enthusiastic about Christine Quinn’s official announcement that she’s running to be the next mayor of New York,” Nathan Schaefer, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, added. “The LGBT community could have no greater ally in Gracie mansion.”

Victory Fund CEO Chuck Wolfe also welcome Quinn’s announcement.

“Chris is so clearly and deeply passionate about New York City and the people who call it home,” he said. “She works hard to make sure the city works for everyone, and that’s what people expect of their elected leaders. As mayor of New York City, she will be a worldwide symbol of what openly LGBT people can achieve when we work hard, earn the respect of our communities and fight to win.”

Christine Quinn formally announces NYC mayoral campaign

Gay News, Washington Blade, Christine Quinn, Gay New York

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn on Sunday officially launched her mayoral campaign.

“Today I’m announcing, making it official, that I’m running for mayor of the city of New York,” she said in a video posted to her campaign website. “I’m running because I love this city. It is the greatest place in the world.”

Quinn mentioned in the video she was executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project in the late 1990s. She also referenced her grandparents who immigrated from Ireland a century ago and her mother’s long battle with breast cancer when she was a child.

“My mother’s life and death left me with a belief that our obligation is to use every moment we have on this earth to make it a better place, to make other people’s lives better, to make sure nobody is left behind because they might need a little more help,” Quinn said.

A Quinnipiac University poll released late last month finds Quinn, who would become the city’s first female and openly gay mayor, leads New York City Public Advocate Bill De Blasio and other leading Democratic challengers. The survey also found 63 percent of respondents are comfortable with a gay mayoral candidate.

Quinn told the Washington Blade last September LGBT issues remain an integral part of her agenda.

She introduced a bill in 2004 to require city contractors to offer equal benefits to registered same-sex domestic partners and married heterosexual couples. Quinn also worked with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Department of Education to implement an anti-bullying curriculum in the city’s public schools.

Quinn has frequently spoken out against anti-LGBT violence in the five boroughs — and she joined other New York City officials who criticized then-Puerto Rico Gov. Luís Fortuño for what they contend was his unwillingness to stop anti-LGBT violence on the island in the wake of gay teenager Jorge Steven López Mercado’s 2009 murder.

She also continues to boycott the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade because organizers prohibit gay men and lesbians from marching.

Quinn, who married her long-time partner Kim Catullo last May, told the Blade “one could feel the joy on the streets” after the New York’s same-sex marriage law passed in 2011.

“We had the opportunity to publicly commit in a legal ceremony in front of our family and friends, that we are a couple, we are family,” she said. “We are just as important as any other family. I will always be grateful for that day and remember that day for the rest of my life.”

In spite of her advocacy on these and other issues, Quinn has faced criticism from LGBT Democrats and other progressives over her support of the extension of term-limits that allowed the mayor, herself and other city officials to run for a third-term.

She acknowledged in 2008 a City Council slush fund appropriated more than $17 million to community organizations that did not exist. Quinn sparked further controversy last July when she demanded the president of New York University remove Chick-fil-A from campus in response to CEO Dan Cathy’s opposition to marriage rights for same-sex couples.

“Chris is so clearly and deeply passionate about New York City and the people who call it home,” Victory Fund CEO Chuck Wolfe said in a statement. “She works hard to make sure the city works for everyone, and that’s what people expect of their elected leaders. As mayor of New York City, she will be a worldwide symbol of what openly LGBT people can achieve when we work hard, earn the respect of our communities and fight to win.”

Jose Antonio Vargas ‘optimistic’ about immigration reform

Jose Antonio Vargas, National Council of La Raza, gay news, Washington Blade

Jose Antonio Vargas accepts an award from the National Council of La Raza in D.C. on March 5. (Photo courtesy of National Council of La Raza)

A gay former Washington Post reporter who came out as an undocumented immigrant nearly two years ago told the Washington Blade earlier this week the LGBT rights movement needs to do more to advocate on behalf of comprehensive immigration reform.

“When we talk about immigration, we’re talking about why our country looks the way it does,” Jose Antonio Vargas said, specifically applauding the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for their efforts. “I would think and I would hope and I would pray that the LGBT community should be at the center of that conversation.”

Vargas, who publicly disclosed his immigration status for the first time in an essay he wrote for the New York Times Magazine in June 2011, spoke with the Blade the day after the National Council of La Raza honored him along with California Attorney General Kamala Harris, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and United We Dream at their annual awards ceremony at the National Building Museum in D.C.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist has repeatedly said his decision to come out as gay in 1999 while in high school in Mountain View, Calif., was less difficult than disclosing his immigration status, although his grandfather kicked him out of the house. Vargas, whose mother sent him from the Philippines to live with his grandparents outside San Francisco when he was 12, reiterated this point during a Center for American Progress forum on undocumented LGBT immigrants on Friday.

“I ruined the plan,” he said as he discussed his grandfather’s reaction to his decision to come out as gay. “The plan was to come to America, marry a woman and get my papers that way.”

Vargas has remained among the most high profile undocumented immigrants since disclosing his status.

He founded Define American, an organization that advocates on behalf of undocumented immigrants seeking citizenship, in 2011. Vargas last month testified in support of comprehensive immigration reform before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“It was definitely very stressful,” Vargas told the Blade as he recalled his testimony. His grandmother who once asked him whether he had to talk about his sexual orientation when he discussed his immigration status sat a few feet behind him during the hearing. “I’m only one person and it’s only one story, but there was an obligation to try to speak to the collective universal experience as much as possible.”

His advocacy on behalf of undocumented immigrants has not come without controversy.

He faced criticism for lying to his editors at the Post and other publications for which he worked about his status.

“Of course there’s criticism because I lied — I lied to my colleagues, I lied to my employers,” Vargas told the Blade immediately after the Center for American Progress forum during which he spoke. “I have no control over peoples’ judgment. All I ask for I guess is empathy.”

He responded further.

“It was either lie or don’t work,” Vargas said. “I wanted to work. I wanted to pay taxes. I wanted to contribute to my home. So that’s what I had to do.”

A Williams Institute report released during the Center for American Progress forum notes at least 267,000 of the more than 900,000 foreign-born LGBT adults currently living in the United States are undocumented.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said during the same Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at which Vargas testified the Uniting American Families Act that would allow gays and lesbians to sponsor their foreign-born partners for immigration purposes would not increase the risk of fraud among those seeking to enter the country. She wrote to Congress last fall that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would instruct personnel to consider “long-term, same-sex partners” as families while weighing the potential deportations of undocumented immigrants.

Napolitano told the Blade late last month the Defense of Marriage Act prevents the White House from placing a hold on marriage-based green card applications for bi-national same-sex couples in response to requests from New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and others.

Vargas said he remains hopeful about the prospects of comprehensive immigration reform.

“I’m optimistic about it because frankly everybody realizes and acknowledges the urgency,” he said. “We’re talking about a legacy issue for the White House as well and doing what’s right.”

Vargas once again sought to personalize the issue during the Center for American Progress forum as he discussed a man with whom he recently spoke after a panel at Elmhurst College outside Chicago. He said the man told him “he would like to give him papers,” but appeared to have an issue with his sexual orientation.

“I am not going back in the closet for anybody,” Vargas said. “The country will only get gayer, it will only get browner, it will only get more Asian. This is the inevitability. In 21st century American politics diversity is destiny. Ignore it at your peril.”

Year in review: Maryland wins marriage equality

Martin O'Malley, Maryland, same-sex marriage, gay marriage, marriage equality, gay news, Washington Blade

Gov. Martin O’Malley signed the marriage bill on Mar. 1 in Annapolis, Md. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Maryland voters on Nov. 6 approved the state’s same-sex marriage law by a 52-48 percent margin.

“Fairness and equality under the law won tonight,” Josh Levin, campaign manager for Marylanders for Marriage Equality, a coalition of groups that included the Human Rights Campaign and Equality Maryland that supported Question 6, said shortly after he announced voters had upheld the law. “We’re sure to feel the ripples of this monumental victory across the country for years to come.”

Election Day capped off a long and often tumultuous effort for Maryland’s same-sex marriage advocates that began in 1997 when three state lawmakers introduced the first bill that would have allowed nuptials for gays and lesbians.

Equality Maryland and the American Civil Liberties Union in 2004 filed a lawsuit on behalf of Lisa Polyak and Gita Deane and eight other same-sex couples and a gay widow who sought the right to marry in the state. Baltimore Circuit Court Judge M. Brooke Murdock in 2006 ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but the Maryland Court of Appeals ultimately upheld the constitutionality of the state’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples the following year.

State lawmakers in 2011 narrowly missed approving a same-sex marriage bill, but legislators approved it in February. O’Malley signed the measure into law on March 1.

The Maryland Marriage Alliance, which opposed the same-sex marriage law, collected more than 160,000 signatures to prompt a referendum on the law — the group needed to collect 55,736 signatures by June 30 to bring the issue before voters on Nov. 6.

Marylanders for Marriage Equality struggled to raise money in the first months of the campaign, but it ultimately netted nearly $6 million. HRC contributed more than $1.5 million in cash and in-kind contributions to the pro-Question 6 campaign, while New York City Michael Bloomberg donated $250,000 in October.

Former National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and his wife Chan announced a $100,000 contribution to Marylanders for Marriage Equality during an Oct. 2 fundraiser that O’Malley, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and others attended at gay Democratic lobbyist Steve Elmendorf’s Logan Circle home. The governor also headlined a star-studded New York City fundraiser for the campaign that gay former Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman hosted in September.

The Maryland Marriage Alliance netted slightly more than $2.4 million, which is less than half the amount Marylanders for Marriage Equality raised. The National Organization for Marriage, the Knights of Columbus and the Archdiocese of Baltimore are among the groups that contributed to the anti-Question 6 group. Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Family Research President Tony Perkins and Dr. Alveda King, niece of slain civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., are among those who publicly opposed the same-sex marriage law.

The Maryland Marriage Alliance came under increased scrutiny as Election Day drew closer.

The Blade obtained court documents that indicate the Internal Revenue Service in 2011 filed a lien against Derek A. McCoy, the group’s chair, for more than $32,000 in unpaid taxes in 2002 and 2003. He also faced criticism from same-sex marriage advocates for defending a suburban Baltimore pastor who suggested during an October town hall that those who practice homosexuality and approve it are “deserving of death.” A California minister described gay men as “predators” during an anti-Question 6 rally at a Baltimore church on Oct. 21 that McCoy, Jackson, Perkins and others attended.

“Nobody here endorses violence, endorses bullying of any sort in any stance,” McCoy said during a Nov. 2 press conference, two days before a Frederick pastor noted during another anti-Question 6 rally that Superstorm Sandy struck New York City after Bloomberg gave $250,000 to Marylanders for Marriage Equality. “We stand collectively to love our community, to love the constituents who are in our churches and within our broader community in the state of Maryland.”

McCoy said after Election Day the Maryland Marriage Alliance respects “the results that have come from a democratic process.”

The law will take effect on Jan.1.