1010 WINS: Daniel Dromm: From the classroom to the Council chamber, he’s made waves

By Kyle McMorrow

Originally published by 1010 WINS on May 30, 2019

When Daniel Dromm was a teacher at PS 199Q in Queens, he made his daily trip down to the cafeteria to bring his students back to their classroom after lunch. On one particular day, he saw a little girl on the line sobbing. When Dromm asked her why she was crying, she blurted out, “Because the kids are teasing me because my mom is a lesbian.” At the same time, the School Board had been protesting a new curriculum –Children of the Rainbow – designed to teach tolerance of all of New York City’s diverse communities

“It was my school board president who went crazy over that,” Dromm said. “She hired buses to drive thousands of parents down to the Department of Education to protest that curriculum.”

Moved by his experience with the young student, Dromm gained media attention when he publicly supported the new curriculum.

A few months later, Dromm went to a meeting at the New York City Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center. “I raised my hand and I said, I’m a teacher in District 24, and like all the media zoomed in on me, and it was like, oh my gosh incredible. What did I just do? What did I just say? I had not really told my principal I was gay. I wasn’t really out to the other teachers.”

Courtesy of The Daniel Dromm Collection at the La Guardia and Wagner Archives

Soon after, Newsday did a featured story on Dromm, which put a spotlight on him and his private life. Dromm says he remembers feeling “sick that he had done it” the next morning. His school then became a hotbed of media attention until one day he called a press conference, which he credits as being the springboard into the next chapter of his life.

“I never really fully made the connection between education and politics until I actually came out and then I realized that all of education is really based on political decisions. I realized that in order to create change you had to effect the political climate.”

Today, Daniel Dromm is a New York City Councilman where he serves as the Chairperson of the Finance Committee.

Since venturing into politics, Dromm has served as a pioneer of the LGBT rights movement in Queens and organized the first Queens LGBT Pride Parade and Festival. He has not missed a Pride Parade in 44 years and plans to march again this year.