Christine Quinn, Speaker of the NYC Council

Christine Quinn & the NYC Council Slush Fund Scandal

When her fellow New York City Council Members elected her Speaker in January 2005, Christine Quinn became the first openly lesbian or gay person elevated to that position. For many in the LGBT community in New York, the symbolism was clear: Quinn’s election signified the community’s coming of age. But the scandal now enveloping Speaker Quinn is becoming an issue for the LGBT community in New York as well.

“City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s office hid millions of taxpayer dollars by allocating grants to phantom organizations as a way of holding the funds to dole out political favors later — bogus bookkeeping that is the subject of city and federal probes,” Frankie Edozien reported in the New York Post on April 3. Granted that the Post is a right-wing homophobic mouthpiece for Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch. But it is not just the Post that is asking tough questions of the Speaker; it is also the entire New York media, including the New York Times, the New York Daily News, Newsday (the leading daily on Long Island), and the local network affiliates.

And it is also Gay City News, the leading LGBT weekly in New York. “It is crucial… that the full details are spelled out at the earliest possible date,” GCN insisted in an editorial in its April 10 issue, calling the Post’s revelation of the slush fund “a stunner.”

“More troubling is the fact that 24 percent of the distributions in fiscal year 2007 went to Quinn’s district, though… many of the recipients, including the LGBT Callen-Lorde Community Health Center and the American Folk Art Museum, serve a citywide constituency,” the GCN editorial continues.

Many in the LGBT community have applauded Quinn for using her position as the second most powerful person in city government to help fund the LGBT Community Center and many other LGBT community organizations — many of them based in her own district — the third Council district, which includes Greenwich Village and Chelsea.

“Is this a gay issue?,” GCN asks, pointing to “the symbolic role Quinn plays in our community” and concluding that “When, as expected, she runs for mayor next year, she will not get every LGBT vote, but it would be the rare queer New Yorker who would not in some sense feel she is carrying the aspirations of all of us on her shoulders as she enters the field. Christine Quinn has brought a compelling story of achievement by an out lesbian to New York’s public life. Putting this matter quickly and convincingly behind her is something we should all be insisting on.”

Indeed. Questions will now inevitably be asked as to whether those LGBT community organizations were funded through the scheme that has now come under investigation and that may even result in criminal indictments, and it is all the more important that the slush fund scandal now engulfing the first openly gay Council Speaker not taint the the LGBT community as a whole.

Chris Quinn has established a close working partnership with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg — widely rumored to be possible vice-presidential running mate for either the Democratic or Republican nominee — and her position as a superdelegate and as the New York City LGBT community’s most prominent supporter of the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton means that the emerging scandal could have national implications.

This piece originally appeared as a blog post on VisibleVote08.com on 10 April 2008.

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Queens Pride House condemns gubernatorial candidate Paladino for homophobic statements

For more info., contact:
Pauline Park
Daniel Castellanos
Queens Pride House
76-11 37th Ave, Suite 206
Jackson Heights, NY 11372
(718) 429-5309
(718) 424-4003

12 October 2010, Jackson Heights, NY — Queens Pride House — the only center for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community of Queens — has issued a statement condemning Carl Paladino for statements he made denigrating members of the LGBT community.

“Carl Paladino’s outrageous invective against members of the LGBT community demonstrate clearly his homophobic bias and his complete disregard for common decency,” said Pauline Park, president of the board of directors of Queens Pride House. “We call on all responsible elected officials and community leaders in Queens to condemn Paladino’s bigoted and reprehensible statements,” she added.

“I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don’t want them brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option — it isn’t,” Paladino declared at a press conference in Brooklyn on October 10.

“Queens Pride House is a 501(c)(3) organization, and we do not endorse candidates for elective office,” noted Daniel Castellanos, executive director of the not-for-profit based in Jackson Heights. “But we believe that as the only LGBT community center in Queens, we have not only a right but an obligation to speak out against homophobia and bigotry in the public arena,” Castellanos said in condemning the candidate for governor of New York who is running on both the Republican and Conservative Party lines. “Paladino’s homophobic comments would be unacceptable at any time, but coming as they do after news of horrific hate crimes against LGBT youth in the Bronx and the suicides of several gay teens just in the last week, they are as incredibly insensitive as they are obviously bigoted,” added Castellanos.

“Paladino’s defense that he is speaking from Catholic faith is as outrageous and indefensible as the orignal comments themselves,” declared Charles J. Ober, treasurer of the the Queens Pride House board of directors. “There are many Catholics and other people of faith who strongly support full inclusion of LGBT people in their communities of faith as well as full equality under law — including marriage equality,” added Ober, a practicing Roman Catholic and a member of Dignity, the organization for LGBT Roman Catholics; Ober once served on the board of directors of its New York City chapter.

“It is statements just like these from elected officials and candidates for office that create an environment of hostility for LGBT people, including LGBT youth many of whom are just coming out,” said Park, who negotiated full inclusion of gender identity in the Dignity for All Students Act, a safe schools statute enacted by the New York state legislature in June and signed into law by Gov. David A. Paterson on September 8. “And Paladino’s ridicule of LGBT pride parades also shows his ignorance of the empowering impact that attendance at and participation in such events,” added Park, who in 2005 became the first openly transgendered grand marshal of the New York City Pride March — the nation’s oldest and largest.

Queens Pride House is a non-profit organization based in the borough of Queens. Founded in 1997, QPH serves the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans communities in Queens by increasing access to LGBT-friendly health and social resources, heightening political awareness, building community, and advocating for more comprehensive services. Operating as an LGBT community center, Pride House provides many services. QPH runs a health referral hotline and drop-in center which links participants to resources within their own communities, allows participants to access resources for themselves by offering free computer and internet services, and provides safe spaces for LGBT-identified people to gather.

QPH facilitates several support groups that decrease social isolation and increase education about health-related issues, resulting in increased overall general health of the population served. The monthly workshops offered by QPH address LGBT-related health issues, develop the skills and leadership of participants, and promote collaboration among participants and other community-based organizations. QPH also offers monthly social events and movie nights, which give questioning, curious, or closeted people a non-threatening way to access the community center and services, thereby decreasing some of the barriers to wellness that LGBT people face. Queens Pride House is a member of the National Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Centers. QPH is also a member of the LGBT Health and Human Services Network of New York State, through which it advocates for funding for LGBT programs and services in Queens.

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