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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Dan Halloran performing a pagan ritual; but are the other heathens registered Republican…?

William James wrote of “The Varieties of Religious Experience” in 1902, long before the movement now known as ‘neo-paganism’ came into its own. While I am not aware of any survey data on the matter, I suspect that most people, if asked, would probably imagine such modern pagans to be on the left of the political spectrum. So it may come as a surprise to the voters in the 19th New York City Council district — one of the two most conservative in Queens, which includes Bayside, Whitestone, Auburndale, Flushing North and other neighborhoods on the northeastern fringe of the borough — to discover that the Republican nominee for City Council in their district identifies as a pagan.

When the Queens Tribune discovered that the candidate who now has the Republican, Conservative, Independence and Libertarian Party lines going into the November general election also styles himself ‘First Atheling’ of a local group of self-identified ‘heathens’ dedicated to the worship of the old Norse gods, the weekly newspaper dubbed Dan Halloran the ‘pagan king.’

Halloran’s campaign website gives one the impression of a boilerplate tax-cutting Republican. There’s certainly nothing to indicate that the Irish American who was raised Catholic is a pagan, much less the lawyer for the New York City Pagan Pride Project. From his responses to questions from the Queens Tribune, the conservative Republican seems slightly embarrassed to have gotten media attention for his paganism, and there’s no link on his campaign website to his profile page on paganspace.net, where he calls himself ‘Dan-O’ (‘O’Halloran’ apparently being the traditional Irish version of his family name). Halloran is certainly the first Republican candidate for public office I’ve ever come across who lists ‘heathenry’ as one of his hobbies or who claims to be the ‘first atheling‘ (leading prince) of a local band of Norse pagans.

Halloran’s belief system — ‘Theodism‘ — is defined by The Witches’ Voice as “a heathen orthodox approach to Germanic reconstruction.” I suppose if one is going to run as a heathen Republican, it is probably best not to stray too far from heathen orthodoxy; if one does, one risks the wrath of people with names like ‘Swain Wodening’ and ‘Gert Thygen McQueen.’ But Halloran’s more recent concern has been less the anger of the Thaet Angelseaxice Ealdriht than the displeasure of the barons and thanes of the Queens County Republican Party  organization. After rumors that Halloran might get the axe — wielded no doubt by the decidedly post-Norse, conventionally religious party boss Phil Ragusa — Halloran’s spokesperson insisted that the candidate would not be offered a judgeship or pushed aside in favor of Paul Vallone (scion of former Council Speaker Peter Vallone, Sr.), who had just lost the Democratic primary in the 19th to Kevin Kim. So apparently the “GOP is standing by their Theodsman,” as one neo-pagan blogger put it.

“What we [the Queens County Republican Party] have done is stand firmly with Dan Halloran and called on Congressman [Gary] Ackerman and his staffer Kevin Kim to renounce the vile, repugnant attacks on Dan Halloran’s faith and heritage,” Vince Tabone (Queens executive vice-chairman and spokesperson for the Halloran campaign) was quoted as saying. Tabone’s tone of moral indignation might have more credibility if there were any indication on Halloran’s website or in his campaign literature of a commitment to diversity of religious and spiritual expression or any history of the Queens County Republican Party’s commitment to such diversity. Certainly, the national Republican Party has been the instrument of the religious right from 1980 to the present day and its intolerance for any form of religion except Christian fundamentalism of the most bigoted sort has had a profoundly negative impact on this country for more than a generation.

While Dan Halloran would be the first pagan-identified candidate that I am aware of to win elected office in this city or anywhere in the state, the fact is that he was not running as an ‘out and proud’ pagan. Halloran was ‘outed’ by the Tribune and has seemed sheepish in trying to defend himself, saying simply that his religious faith should be kept out of the race — not at all the response one would expect from someone who cites Beowulf as one of his heroes. Perhaps Halloran could more effectively rally the neo-pagan vote in the 19th district if he were more stout in his defense of his Theodic faith. But the 19th is not, as far as I am aware, a hotbed of heathenry; in fact, it is one of the most socially and politically conservative Council districts in New York City and one of the few in which Republican candidates are viable, so Halloran does have a good chance of winning the seat being vacated by Council Member Tony Avella, who on Sept. 15 lost the Democratic primary for mayor to Bill Thompson.

Whichever candidate wins, he will be making history. The high heathen Halloran will face Kevin Kim in the general election in November, as Kim won the hotly contested Democratic primary on  Sept. 15. The deputy director for community affairs for U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-5), Kim has his boss’s support, and if he prevails in November, he would be the first Korean American elected to public office in the borough or the city.  Kim’s candidacy takes on added significance, given the failure of Korean American John Choe — the former chief of staff to outgoing Council Member John Liu — to win the Democratic primary for the seat being vacated by his boss (now the all-but-certain City Comptroller) in the 20th district, centered on Flushing. Choe was the victim of a particularly vicious red-baiting campaign that attempted –without any evidence — to tie him to the totalitarian regime that rules North Korea, simply by virtue of his membership in Nodutdol, a progressive New York-based organization working for the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. Kevin Kim is now the only candidate for City Council of Korean descent, and on November 3, the voters of the 19th district will determine whether a Korean American takes office for the first time in the history of the city or the state.

I live in the 25th Council district in western Queens, which seems a world away from the 19th in ambience and political culture; but if I were a voter in the 19th district, I would certainly vote for Kevin Kim, whose politics are clearly more progressive than Halloran’s warmed-over right-wing Bush Republicanism. Kim is my atheling of choice.

Beowulf? or Thane of Cawdor…?

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