Clockwise from top left: Kevin Aviance, Christine Quinn, Marriage Equality rally July 6 at Sheridan Square, and Eliot Spitzer. Aviance – AP Photo: Seth Wenig; Quinn – Shiho Fukada; rally – Trenton Straube; and Spitzer – Tim Roske.
As the rainbow flag turns 30, its creator, New Yorker Gilbert Baker, finds inventive ways to keep the LGBT symbol visible. Plus: the original eight-color flag debuts in Manhattan’s Pride March.
In this exclusive Pride interview with The Blade, Gov. Paterson reiterates his staunch support for LGBT equality and same-sex marriage.
In this special Pride essay, professor Daniel Pinello explains why even a Democrat-controlled Senate won’t pass marriage equality soon—and what you can do to change that fact.
Park Rangers issue citations for public sex in The Meat Rack—a first in four decades
Gay N.Y. court employees form The Alliance.
Five years ago, Canada legalized same-sex marriage. Local gay couples who traveled north to tie the knot celebrate the half-decade mark.
New policies allow residents to choose name, dress, housing
Despite sudden downpours, police raids on clubs, and an alleged gay
bashing, Manhattan’s Pride weekend was, for most people, one big
celebration.
The reason? ‘We want [our 4-year-old son] to have that dignity and respect that the government gives families with marriage.’
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By KERRY ELEVELD
Friday, December 29, 2006
We published the first issue of The New York Blade in its current format in January 2006. Breezing back over our first 51 issues, it was a big year for the LGBT movement—beginning with the election of openly gay Christine Quinn as speaker of the City Council all the way to handing the governor’s post to Eliot Spitzer, who has pledged to introduce legislation that legalizes same-sex marriage. Here’s a local look back at LGBT news highlights of the year.
Love & Marriage
On July 6, the New York Court of Appeals issued a 4–2 decision against the right of same-sex couples to marry, punting the issue to the state legislature where activists are currently counting votes for a marriage bill. According to the Empire State Pride Agenda’s marriage report card,
38 assemblymembers support a marriage bill, 23 oppose it and 89 assemblymembers are wavering. On the senate side, 13 senators support marriage, 20 oppose it and 29 senators remain undecided. Strategists say passing a marriage bill may take anywhere from two to 10 years, depending on who’s prognosticating.
Across the river, the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Oct. 25 decision that the state must provide the same rights and protections of marriage to same-sex couples was a welcome change that left many LGBT activists wanting more. The court left semantics up to the NJ state legislature, which resulted in a ‘civil unions’ bill that passed just in time for holiday merriment on December 14. Activists are now putting laser-beam focus on the question of whether civil unions really will provide the exact same benefits of marriage, which will in part rest on how those unions are received in neighboring states such as New York.
The Ryan White Two-step
After New York State received an increase of $2.5 million dollars in federal Ryan White CARE Act funding for AIDS services in 2006, the state held its breath as state legislators did some fancy footwork to mitigate future funding losses. New York could have lost up to $100 million based on the scheme of the original renewal bill that was introduced in Congress, but Sens. Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer blocked a vote until a deal could be brokered that guaranteed no locale would lose more than 5 percent of its previous year’s funding. The final bill, passed in December, renewed Ryan White for three years rather than five. Activists are already lobbying Congress and 2008 presidential candidates for some type universal coverage to replace Ryan White come 2011.
HIV/AIDS Testing New Ground
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOH) Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden drew fire from AIDS activists last spring when he introduced a plan to eliminate pre-HIV test counseling and written consent requirements in an attempt to increase the number of tests administered. DOH held a series of debates where community activists and people living with AIDS largely denounced the recommendations, which would require changing state law to be implemented. The issue came to the fore again in September when the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) adopted guidelines nationwide that mirrored Frieden’s proposal, even as New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Antonia Novello voiced her opposition to the policy. HIV testing promises to fuel more controversy in 2007 as the state legislature considers changes to the New York law, which is now at odds with the CDC’s federal guidelines.
Hate Crimes in New York
Several anti-gay hate crimes made headlines, but two that caught the most attention were those perpetrated against nightlife performance artist Kevin Aviance and Brooklyn resident Michael Sandy, both African Americans. Aviance was attacked by four young gang members in the East Village before Gay Pride week, suffering a broken jaw, and a fractured knee and neck; the four men were charged with first-degree assault as a hate crime. Michael Sandy was lured from his home computer on Oct. 8 to a parking lot in Plum Beach, Brooklyn, where he was beaten and robbed. He later died as a result of the injuries, and three men were charged with murder in the second degree as a hate crime. Hate crimes have fallen 43 percent since 2002, but they have risen almost across the board from last year according to the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force. From January through September, anti-gay hate crimes rose from 35 in 2005 to 46 in 2006; anti-black hate crimes rose from 22 to 26 in the same period; and anti-Semitic hate crimes went from 66 to 88.
Trans Rights: One Step Forward, One Back
The year kicked off with news that Rikers Island was phasing out its “gay housing unit,” which many transgender people considered a safe haven away from standard prison housing at Rikers. In March, Helena Stone took on the Metro Transit Authority after she was arrested by MTA officers for using the women’s bathroom. The charges against Ms. Stone were dropped quickly following public outcry. She filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission and sued the MTA, which eventually settled the case for $2,000 and agreed to hold transgender sensitivity training for its workers—just in time for Port Authority employees to join. Taking a page from the MTA play book, Port Authority officers arrested three trans teens in October for using the women’s bathroom. Meanwhile, the Department of Health adopted a new policy in December allowing people who have undergone sexual reassignment surgery to alter their birth certificates to reflect their new gender rather than simply removing the gender demarcation altogether per the previous policy. But the change fell short of the original plan, which would have qualified some trans people for an ID change without surgery if they met certain criteria, such as having lived as the opposite sex for a certain period and taking hormones.
2006 People in the News
Christine Quinn jump-started the news in January when she was elected the first openly gay speaker of the New York City Council. That same month, Marjorie J. Hill, Ph.D., became interim executive director of Gay Men’s Health Crisis and went on to be named chief executive officer of GMHC in October. Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer went from being the Attorney General who defended the state against the marital rights of same-sex couples to the gubernatorial candidate who promised to introduce pro-marriage legislation. Open-ly gay attorney and former Clinton aide Sean Patrick Maloney made an impassioned but ultimately unsuccessful bid for the statewide post of attorney general. Richard Burns celebrated his 20th year as executive director of the LGBT Community Center in November. And the community had a love-hate relationship with Sen. Hillary Clinton: In a leaked memo, Empire State Pride Agenda executive director Alan Van Capelle criticized her for not taking a more overtly pro-gay marriage stance; but as she eyes the presidency, she agreed to an exclusive meeting with New York’s LGBT leaders in October and finished up the year strong by spearheading a compromise on the Ryan White bill that saved New York millions of dollars in funding cuts.
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