New York City's last remaining LGBT newsweekly, Gay City News, slams Mayor Michael Bloomberg's record on LGBT issues and endorses City Comptroller Bill Thompson for mayor. Chief among the complaints are Bloomberg's considerable financial support for Senate Republicans, who have been the chief opponents of marriage equality.
In 2005, at the same time the mayor decided to appeal a Manhattan district court judge’s pro-gay marriage ruling, for the first time he announced his support for marriage equality and pledged to lobby Albany to secure that right. That December, he told Gay City News, “When I say I’ll do something, I’ll do something.”
Yet since that statement, Bloomberg has contributed nearly $3.4 million to support the state Republican and Independence Parties, the bulk of those dollars directly funding State Senate Republican incumbents, at a time when that party’s majority refused to bring marriage equality to a floor vote. A $1.2 million Bloomberg contribution to the Independence Party last year was used to support the three most stridently anti-gay Republican senators. The mayor’s support for one of them, Frank Padavan of Queens, helped him squeak out a victory over Democratic City Councilman James Gennaro, a vocal supporter of equal marriage rights.
It’s fair to note that there are marriage equality opponents among the Senate Democrats, too, and that even after gaining the majority last November, their party did not deliver a floor vote. But it’s a good bet that had Gennaro and perhaps another Democrat or two prevailed in 2008, the two disgraceful senators who this past summer crippled a body riven by a 32-30 split would not have had their opportunity. The best information available to Gay City News indicates that without that disruption, Senator Thomas K. Duane would have gotten the marriage equality vote he seeks.
The editors also criticized Bloomberg for suggesting Thompson would renege on his long-standing commitments to gay rights and marriage equality to appease black voters. GCN also questioned the NYPD's record on stop and frisks and its much-criticized policies of arresting of gay men in video stores throughout Manhattan,.
On Bill Thompson, the newspaper says the comptroller "has a longer and stronger suit on LGBT rights issues. On every issue that the mayor claims bona fides, the comptroller was there first and holds a more unambiguous position. His advocacy for workplace fairness––through shareholder resolutions aimed at companies in which the city pension funds invest––has led to nondiscrimination protections and equal partner benefits for LGBT workers at nearly 75 major corporations. That is a significant accomplishment that had helped reshape American business well beyond the borders of New York."
As an interesting side note, Bill Thompson has made it his business to be seen publicly supporting the LGBT community, as he did last Saturday at our Rally Against Hate Crimes in College Point. Mayor Bloomberg was, once again, conspicuously absent. The only LGBT event or rally the Mayor has attended this year was the huge Heritage Of Pride Parade down Fifth Avenue. (He had to make that one--Governor Paterson, Sen. Gilibrand and Bill Thompson were there, as were hundreds of media cameras).
It is widely thought that Thompson might just pull off an upset victory on Election Day, owing to a likely low voter turnout among Republicans, and the fact that recent polls show a high level of dissatisfaction with Bloomberg over term limits. Term-limits were placed on the NYC ballot as a referendum--twice--and twice, New Yorkers voted to retain term limits. Bloomberg, unhappy with democracy in this case, went straight to the NYC Council and did a little backroom wheeling and dealing. The result was that the expressed will of the people was undermined, and Bloomberg got his chance to run for a third term.
Only two other mayors in city history have served three terms: Edward Koch and the legendary Fiorello LaGuardia. Both these mayors won their third terms by doing great things for NYC in their first two terms. Koch brought NYC out of its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and presided over Manhattan's second-biggest construction boom. LaGuardia started--and completed--more public works projects for NYC than any other mayor before or since. He modernized the NYPD and FDNY, opened 38 miles of new subway routes, and gave the city its first municipal airport, which bears his name to this day.
I do not believe Bloomberg, during his past eight years in office, has even come close to the achievements of Koch OR LaGuardia. The World Trade Center is still a disgraceful hole in the ground, the much-publicized Fulton Transit Center was first halved in scope, then construction was abandoned, the Municipal Bond issue is on life support, and the unemployment rate is skyrocketing. Mike Bloomberg, you're no Fiorello LaGuardia, and you shouldn't have a third term.
Posted by: Nathan James | 22 October 2009 at 14:57
Wish there were more comments on this article, but then again this isnt a NYC blog per-se. Hopefully everyone will inform themselves on the candidates and make sure to vote for the one they want! It doesn't stop with Obama people. I took great pleasure recently when a Bloomberg cold caller asked if he had my support, I said "hell no I'm voting for Bill Thompson!", and he was like "uh, oh, um, ok." If you're in NYC
(or anywhere in the US for that matter) you owe it to yourselves to vote, so get off the PC now and get registered!
Posted by: Procrastination_Xtravaganza | 24 October 2009 at 08:54
Good for Gay City News.
Don't forget that Bloomberg has been closing down gay businesses.
Posted by: libhomo | 25 October 2009 at 14:45