NGLCC: New York City to Become Largest City in America   to Recognize LGBT-Owned Businesses

New York City to Become Largest City in America
to Recognize LGBT-Owned Businesses

Historic agreement between NYC Dept. of Small Business Services
and National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, five years in the making


January 19, 2021


Washington, D.C. – The National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), the business voice of the LGBT community, is proud to announce that New York City Small Business Services (SBS) has approved a measure to include NGLCC Certified LGBT Business Enterprise® (Certified LGBTBE®) suppliers in contracting and procurement opportunities, as well as capacity building and educational programs from small businesses, throughout the city. For LGBT citizens of New York City, this inclusive policy provides fair and equal access to economic development programs that drive innovation, create jobs, and promote economic growth throughout the city.


“Thanks to the leadership of NGLCC, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYC Department of Small Business Services– especially Commissioner Jonnel Doris and Deputy Commissioner Dynishal Gross– LGBT entrepreneurs in New York City will now have the opportunity to create jobs and develop innovations that benefit all who live there. New York City has a legacy of leadership in promoting inclusivity at every level of public life. Now, history has been made here in New York City, and this victory for inclusivity has once again proved our core values that ‘diversity is good for business’ and that ‘if you can buy it, a certified LGBT-owned business can supply it.’ We are excited to see LGBTBEs in every field, from construction to catering and everything in between, help grow the economy of New York City and beyond as M/WBEs and EBEs,” said 
NGLCC Co-Founder & President Justin Nelson.

New and Current NGLCC Certified LGBTBE® suppliers can utilize their existing certification to meet a majority of criteria needed to be certified by NYC’s Department of Small Business Services (SBS). The additional information required will be submitted via electronic addendum provided when a supplier begins the online application with the City of New York. 
Learn more at nglcc.org/nyc. 

“Equity of access and inclusion are at the core of the work we do at SBS,” said 
Jonnel Doris, Commissioner of the NYC Department of Small Business Services. “A diverse vendor pool makes a stronger New York City, and we are excited to maximize the inclusion of LGBTQ certified firms into the City’s certification process. We look forward to our continued partnership with the NGLCC.”

This policy makes New York City the next city to intentionally include LGBT-owned businesses in municipal contracting and procurement opportunities, a best practice of the private sector and of an ever-growing number of states and municipalities. Thanks to the advocacy of NGLCC and its state and local affiliate chambers, New York City follows in the footsteps of large cities like Chicago, Orlando, Nashville, and more as inclusive leaders throughout the United States. 


NGLCC wishes to thank Congressman Ritchie Torres for introducing a New York City Council bill to push this issue forward, which was first raised by Councilmember Daniel Dromm and members of the LGBTQ Caucus.


“LGBTQ-owned businesses in NYC will finally have equal access to city economic development programs thanks to this historic agreement,” said 
NYC Council LGBT Caucus Chair Daniel Dromm. “When it comes to establishing and growing businesses, LGBTQ entrepreneurs face many significant and manifold challenges. I am pleased that these business owners who were once excluded from sorely-needed contracting and procurement opportunities will be able to participate. I have worked alongside Congressmember Ritchie Torres and the NGLCC to sounds the alarm and raise awareness of this effort which is ultimately about fairness and equity. Thank you to SBS for stepping up and agreeing to this partnership. It will impact the lives of thousands of New Yorkers in a meaningful and lasting way.”

In August 2019, at the 2019 NGLCC International Business & Leadership Conference in Tampa, FL, openly LGBT Mayor Jane Castor announced an executive order to include Certified LGBTBE® suppliers in her city. This order followed Mayor Eric Garcetti’s historic announcement to do the same in Los Angeles just days before, as well as Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s resolution to do the same in her city. In 2018 and early 2019, NGLCC won the inclusion of Certified LGBTBE® suppliers in Orlando, FL; Nashville, TN; Baltimore, MD; Jersey City, NJ; and Hoboken, NJ, while also advancing statewide bills in New York and New Jersey. Currently, California, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania also include Certified LGBTBE® suppliers in city procurement, along with major cities like Seattle, Newark, Columbus, and Philadelphia. Many of America’s largest cities and states are working closely with NGLCC to complete LGBTBE inclusion in 2021. 


“While we have a long way to go for LGBT equality in the nation, NYC has always had a strong and growing network of NGLCC Certified LGBTBE® suppliers and LGBT-owned companies. We hope this resolution in NYC will encourage more cities to proactively include the LGBT community for the optimum social and economic health of their cities. Collectively, LGBT-owned businesses contribute to the $1.7 trillion dollars that the LGBT business community puts into the national economy. Progressive and inclusive leadership, like that of New York City, will ensure greater access to the American Dream for every American,” said 
NGLCC Co-Founder & CEO Chance Mitchell.

Read more here.

Queens Daily Eagle: Council formally calls on state to repeal ‘walking while trans’ ban

THE CITY COUNCIL PASSED A RESOLUTION TO REPEAL A LAW KNOWN AS THE WALKING WHILE TRANS BAN ON THURSDAY.
EAGLE FILE PHOTO BY ANDY KATZ

By Rachel Vick

Originally published in the Queens Daily Eagle on December 11, 2020

The New York City Council passed two resolutions Thursday formally calling on state lawmakers to repeal a prostitution-related loitering misdemeanor dubbed the “walking while trans” ban and to seal the records of people convicted of the offense.

The section of state penal law related to “loitering for the purposes of engaging in prostitution” gives police officers the power to arrest a person for allegedly stopping, talking to or beckoning at others in a public place. In practice, officers have used observations like a defendant’s clothing, gender identity or gender expression as grounds to make an arrest — in essence, profiling trans women as sex workers.

The movement to repeal the law has gained momentum in recent years, fueling the Council’s vote Thursday.

Queens Councilmember Daniel Dromm recalled his own experience with profiling related to the law.

“I was arrested when I was 16 years old and charged with prostitution, something that has gone on as a tool to use against the LGBT community for many, many years, and it’s about time that we ended it,” Dromm said.

Manhattan Councilmember Carlina Rivera, the repeal bill’s sponsor, celebrated the vote in a tweet Thursday.

“Whether you’re a survivor who has shared your story, an organization working to bring justice, or an ally in this fight, thank you,” she said. “It passed and we are grateful to so many! It’s time to repeal the #WalkingWhileTrans ban in NYS.

Six conservative councilmembers voted against the repeal resolution. They were Councilmembers Robert Holden, Chaim Deutsch, Kalman Yeger, Joe Borelli, Steven Matteo and Ruben Diaz, Sr.

Holden, Deutsch, Borelli, Matteo, Diaz and Queens Councilmember Eric Ulrich opposed he sealing resolution, Gay City News reported.
The walking while trans ban has had a disproportionate impact on trans women of color in Queens.

More than half of the 121 arrests for the offense in New York City in 2018 took place in Queens, concentrated in Jackson Heights and Corona, according to an analysis by the website Documented.

That year, 49 percent of people charged with Loitering for the Purpose of Prostitution were Black and 42 percent were Latino.

“As a trans, Latinx woman in Jackson Heights, for over 14 years I have lived the violence that exists, between the police intimidation and patriarchy that impacts our community,” Make the Road organizer Bianey Garcia said at a virtual rally in September. “[Trans community members] tell us they are afraid to express their gender, to wear anything sexy or put heels on for fear of being arrested.”

Though the repeal was not included in the State’s 2020 legislative agenda, Gov. Andrew Cuomo would likely be open to the amendment, a spokesperson told the Eagle in January.

“We would have to review the final bill, but the Governor has been a champion for the transgender community … and strongly opposes the unequal enforcement of any law as a means to target a specific community,” said spokesperson Caitlin Girouard.

Read more here.

Gay City News: City Council Legislation Would Require Intersex Education, Outreach

Out gay City Councilmember Daniel Dromm has proposed legislation aimed at informing doctors and parents or guardians of intersex children about medically-unnecessary interventions.
NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL/ WILLIAM ALATRISTE

By Matt Tracy

Originally published in Gay City News on October 27, 2020.

The New York City Council will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on October 28 on legislation that would require the city’s health department to create an intersex-inclusive outreach campaign intended to educate doctors, parents, and guardians about best medical practices regarding a child born with intersex traits.

The educational information would address medically-unnecessary treatments and interventions that are often performed on children who are intersex, or born with reproductive systems or anatomy not fitting the standard definition of male or female. There is a long history of intersex individuals being forced to undergo surgeries intended to align their bodies with male or female anatomy, but most of those surgeries are deemed unnecessary — and many intersex folks, when they are older, have said the surgeries did not align their bodies with their gender identity.

A summary of the bill, which was first proposed last October by out gay Councilmember Daniel Dromm of Queens and has 10 co-sponsors, states that the material would explain whether medical interventions could be “delayed until the infant is older and can voice thoughts about the procedure.”

In addition to educating parents and doctors, the bill also calls on the health department to “identify outreach partners and opportunities,” though the bill’s language did not elaborate further on that point.

In June of last year, then-City Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot and Human Rights Commissioner Carmelyn P . Malalis penned an op-ed for ozy.com calling on doctors to respect the rights of intersex folks “and only perform surgery when the health of a child is at imminent risk or it is consensual.”

At the state level, out gay State Senator Brad Hoylman of Manhattan announced legislation last November requiring informed consent from an intersex minor before doctors can proceed with any non-medically necessary treatment or intervention.

Dromm posted a tweet about the hearing on October 26, Intersex Awareness Day, which he said is “a time to center Intersex people across the globe.”

“It is also a time to commit ourselves to advocating for this community wherever and however we can,” Dromm said in his tweet. “I introduced Intro 1478, legislation that will equip parents of infants born with intersex traits with the knowledge they need to protect their babies from unnecessary and harmful surgeries. Parents of infants with intersex traits are often forced to rely on quackery masquerading as medical science, leading them to make decisions that inflict life-long physical and psychological trauma on their children. When enacted, my bill will provide these parents with the sound medical info they need to make healthy choices for their babies.”

On Twitter, activist Cecilia Gentili brought up Dromm’s legislation and posted a series of tweets featuring testimonials collected by interACT, a policy and media organization that encouraged Hoylman to propose his legislation last year.

One of those testimonials came from an individual named Hanne Gaby, who said, “I was born as a perfectly healthy intersex child, and yet the medical establishment used fear tactics to convince my parents that I needed to be altered… this led to unimaginably traumatic surgeries and experiences as well as irreversible complications that have broken my trust in the medical establishment.”

The bill’s co-sponsors are out gay Councilmembers Jimmy Van Bramer of Queens and Carlos Menchaca of Brooklyn as well as their colleagues Carlina Rivera, Helen Rosenthal, Ben Kallos, and Margaret Chin of Manhattan; Diana Ayala of the Bronx and Manhattan; Farah Louis of Brooklyn; and Costa Constantinides and Donovan Richards of Queens.

The bill is one of several pieces of legislation on the agenda during a joint hearing between the Committee on Health and the Committee on Women and Gender Equity. The committees will also hear proposals to establish a committee on female genital mutilation and cutting, to create an advisory board for gender equity in hospitals, and to require multiple city agencies to conduct culturally competent training on recognizing the signs of female genital mutilation and cutting.

Read more here.

NY Times: Jackson Heights, Global Town Square

 

By Michael Kimmelman

Originally published in the New York Times on August 28, 2020

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

Photographs by Zack DeZon and Victor Llorente

With a population of around 180,000 people speaking some 167 languages, or so locals like to point out, Jackson Heights in north-central Queens, though barely half the size of Central Park, is the most culturally diverse neighborhood in New York, if not on the planet. The brainchild of commercial real estate developers in the early years of the last century who hoped to entice white, middle-class Manhattanites seeking a suburban lifestyle a short subway ride away, Jackson Heights has become a magnet for Latinos, those who identify as L.G.B.T.Q., South Asians and just about everybody else seeking a foothold in the city and a slice of the American pie.

Suketu Mehta is a New York University professor and the author of “Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found” and “This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto.” What follows is the latest in a series of (edited, condensed) walks around the city.

 

Diversity Plaza has become a proud symbol of Queens as the city’s most international borough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even by New York standards, Jackson Heights is changing so fast and contains so many different communities that no single walk can begin to take in the whole neighborhood. There’s a booming Latin American cultural scene, a growing Nepali and Tibetan contingent, an urban activist movement, pioneering car bans on local streets. This is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s district, and it is represented by a longtime openly gay city councilman named Daniel Dromm. It was also one of the neighborhoods hardest hit by the Covid-19 outbreak in the spring.

Mehta was born in Kolkata, India and raised in Mumbai. He moved with his family to Jackson Heights in 1977. His parents came to expand the family diamond business. At that time, he was 14 and, like the city, Jackson Heights was going through a rough patch.

He and I “met” the other day (virtually, by phone) at Diversity Plaza, the blocklong stretch of street, pedestrianized in 2012, which has become Jackson Heights’s de facto town square and a proud symbol of Queens as the city’s most international borough. Half a block away, Patel Brothers, the Indian grocer, does brisk business. The plaza attracts tourists coming off the subway, looking for cheap eats, and is a meeting spot for locals, who hang out and debate politics, pick up prescriptions from the Bangladeshi pharmacy, and buy momos and samosas from the shops and food stalls that, cheek by jowl, pack both sides of the block.

 

 

Michael Kimmelman It’s almost miraculous, the effect just closing off a single street to cars has had.

Suketu Mehta If I were Baudelaire, this is where I would do my flâneur thing. For a dollar you can get some paan and eavesdrop.

Paan, the betel leaf.

You’ll notice all these signs around the plaza pleading with people not to spit betel juice.

In vain, clearly.

 

Paan stains on the ground in Diversity Plaza.

 

As in the homeland, such pleas tend to be honored more in the breach. I also want to point out a food bazaar in the plaza called Ittadi.

Occupying a former Art Deco movie palace from the 1930s.

It was originally called the Earle. When I was growing up, the Earle showed pornographic films. By the ’80s it had turned into a Bollywood theater. The new owners didn’t want to invest in a wholesale remaking of the old Earle sign, so they just changed one letter and renamed it the Eagle. You could see the G was in a totally different font. The Eagle remained popular until video stores around the corner started selling cheap pirated copies of the same films that were showing in the theater. I remember walking into one of those stores with a Bollywood director, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, with whom I had written a script. Without saying who he was, he asked for pirated copies of his own movies. When it turned out there were plenty of them for sale he started yelling at the owners, saying they were stealing his stuff.

So they invited him for tea. They said they were so honored to have him in the store, even though he was yelling at them.

 

 

Did they say they would stop selling pirated copies?

Of course not. There was no way they were not going to do that. They said they were selling loads and loads of his films, that he was hugely popular, and he should consider it a compliment.

You grew up near what’s now Diversity Plaza?

On 83rd Street and 37th Avenue, so about a 10-minute walk away and also 10 minutes from Sam and Raj. When my family and I came to America we were told that there were three monuments in New York that every Indian must visit: the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and Sam and Raj, an electrical appliance shop on 74th Street and 37th Avenue, where you could buy both 110- and 220-volt appliances.

Sam and Raj also sold toasters, razors, watches and little pens with digital alarm clocks embedded in them — things Indians would take back home. If you spoke in Gujarati, they wouldn’t charge you sales tax. Every time someone in my family came from India to visit, we had to take them to the fabled Sam and Raj. From the old country they would bring over a cargo of rich silks and exotic spices.

And they would take back, you know, bags filled with cheap electronic knickknacks.

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nearby I remember there was a Burmese grocery store called Mount Fuji (because the owners had lived in Japan). Big freezers contained Burmese river fish and tea leaf salads. Burmese hip-hop played on the TV. This was when Myanmar was under sanctions, so the store had to smuggle everything in from Burma. Burmese people living in Jackson Heights would make trips home and smuggle goods back. Once, I asked a couple of guys in the store what these people would take from Queens to Burma. They said the same thing: “Centrum!”

Apparently Centrum multivitamins were much in vogue in Burma.

Jackson Heights was originally a private development scheme — a kind of City Beautiful with faux French Renaissance and Tudor housing built by the Queensboro Corporation to lure white Manhattanites, but then Jews and L.G.B.T.Q. New Yorkers started arriving by the 1940s, Latinos in the ’50s.

The Queensboro Corporation named it after a descendant of one of the original Queens families and added “heights” because it made the place sound loftier.

Those Latinos who started arriving in the 1950s were mostly Colombians and other South Americans. Today they’re also from Central and North America. After the 1965 Immigration Act lifted restrictions on Asians, waves of Indian professionals, like my parents, started coming.

You didn’t turn out to be suited to the family trade.

No, but I did end up writing what I believe is still the only Jain-Hasidic love story set in the diamond business. It was made into a movie some years ago by Mira Nair, part of a not particularly distinguished omnibus film called “New York, I Love You.” My segment was “Kosher Vegetarian,” starring Natalie Portman and the late, great Indian actor Irrfan Khan. Their love talk was: “What can’t you eat?”

Speaking of cultural mash-ups, just around the corner from Diversity Plaza, if we stand at the bottom of the stairs leading to and from the elevated No. 7 train on Roosevelt at 74th and do a panoramic survey, we can find signs in Spanish, Bengali, Urdu and Hindi. The most interesting signage tends to be on the second floors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Facing onto the elevated subway tracks?

Right. Those second floors are rabbit warrens of shops and offices. The multilingual signs in the windows advertise businesses that help people in the neighborhood deal with green cards, civil-service exams, driver’s licenses, divorces, funerals and SAT prep. In Jackson Heights recent immigrants don’t always know how to interface with the American system or whom to trust, so when they find a person, someone in one of these places, they’ll often use that person to handle everything.

Then if we walk down Roosevelt Avenue, we come to some of the famous Latino bars like “Romanticos,” which are what used to be called taxi dance halls.

Henry Miller wrote about taxi dance halls in the 1920s.

They flourish in Jackson Heights as “bailaderos” — places men can go to have a beer in the presence of somewhat skimpily dressed women and pay a couple of dollars extra for a dance. Like the men, the women are mostly migrants, from all over Latin America. I’ve gone to these bars. Typically, a guy comes in, a woman comes up to him, she’s dressed in a short skirt, they start chatting. Soon they bring out their phones to show pictures of their families back in the Dominican Republic or Mexico and coo over each other’s kids before they get up to grind on the dance floor. For a few dollars, their loneliness may be briefly assuaged.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A corner named after Julio Rivera, a gay man who was beaten and killed in 1990.

 

There’s an L.G.B.T.Q. bar scene on Roosevelt Avenue, as well.

The city’s biggest concentration of Latino L.G.B.T.Q. bars and nightclubs is in Jackson Heights. As far back as the 1920s, gays from Manhattan started coming to the neighborhood, and now Jackson Heights hosts the city’s second-biggest Pride parade — an amazing thing considering this is home to some of the city’s most conservative religious communities, like Bangladeshi Muslims and Latino Catholics.

I grew up among these people. My parents sent me to an all-boys Catholic school. The teachers called me a pagan and I learned to run very fast.

There was a notorious hate crime in Jackson Heights back in 1990. Julio Rivera, a 29-year-old gay bartender, was lured to a public schoolyard, beaten and stabbed to death by skinheads.

The corner of 78th Street and 37th Avenue is now named after Rivera. My younger sister went to that public school, P.S. 69. That this neighborhood should end up hosting the city’s second-biggest Pride parade seemed impossible back then. But I think because Jackson Heights is so ethnically diverse, people have gradually become accustomed to accommodating what you might call another spice in the mix, ethnically and sexually.

Diversity breeds tolerance.

I don’t like the word tolerance because it implies sufferance. I prefer to describe it as a lowering of people’s guards at a time when the neighborhood and the city in general have become safer, which means there is less fear and more room for curiosity.

But it’s also a product of sharing the same space. I like to use the example of the building where I grew up, at 35-33 83rd Street. When I lived there — and the situation is no different now — the owner was Turkish. The super was Greek, the tenants were Indians and Pakistanis, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans, Muslims, Uzbeks and former Soviet Jews. People who had been killing each other just before they got on the plane for America were living next to each other. And every Sunday morning, the entire building rang to the glad sounds of Bollywood songs on “Vision of Asia,” which was a program broadcast on a Spanish-language television station. Dominicans, Indians, Pakistanis and Russians in the building all sang along.

 

Suketu Mehta grew up at 35-33 83rd Street.

 

Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t that we were all one big happy family and loved each other in our colorful eccentricities. We often said horribly racist things about each other.

But we were all immigrants trying to make a life in the New World, some of us sending money back to the most hateful organizations in our home countries. But here we shared food, because Hindus and Muslims both like samosas. Here, hate crime laws, as extremists learned, were enforced much more than they were back home, so fear of the law mitigated some of the worst impulses.

And children played together on the street, or in each other’s backyards, which meant parents got to know about all these other cultures through their kids. My sister’s best friend was the Greek super’s daughter, which is how we learned about pork chops seasoned with oregano, and how they learned about Gujarati vegetarian food like dhoklas.

You mentioned sending money home, the remittance economy.

Jackson Heights is of course home to a large number of undocumented residents. There seems to be tacit understanding that civil authorities won’t enforce certain rules and codes too strictly. Informality allows the system to be permeable, meaning that someone who lives here may not need to produce a Social Security card to rent an apartment or get a job. They can earn enough to pay the rent and also send money home. So along Roosevelt Avenue there are all sorts of stores that cater to the remittance economy. Last year, migrants around the world sent over $554 billion home.

More than three times the amount of development aid dispensed by wealthy countries, according to the World Bank, although the pandemic threatens to reduce remittances significantly, with scary ripple effects on global poverty.

Remittances may be tiny — $50, $100 — but the money goes directly to the grandmother for medical treatment or the sister who needs to pay her school fees. It bypasses governments and government corruption. If we really want to help the global poor, I think we need more money transfer places like the ones on Roosevelt Avenue.

Roosevelt Avenue isn’t the official commercial drag of the neighborhood.

No, that’s 37th Avenue, a block north, where you will find the “sidewalk ballet” that Jane Jacobs celebrated, with mom and pop stores where the mom and the pop are actually outside, standing on the street, watching kids play.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The avenue is an incredibly lively, vibrant scene — not messy and seedy like Roosevelt Avenue — with everything from Korean grocers and gourmet cheese and wine shops for the yuppies who are gentrifying Jackson Heights to Brazilian and Colombian boutiques selling jeans and lingerie with fake bundas.

Fake what?

Bundas. Padded butts. And then you have the discount suits on display at the old-time men’s wear stores, which in my day sold outfits you might recall from “Saturday Night Fever.” When I was a student at N.Y.U., my father took me to one. I had told him I was going on my first date. He kind of stared at me, then took me to one of these stores and very loudly announced to the salesman: “My son has an important social occasion coming up.” He bought me a three-piece suit.

How lovely.

It was highly flamboyant, with a heavy polyester component.

How did the date go?

She was a Dominican woman from Brooklyn. I fell madly in love. We saw a Broadway show and she somehow managed to suppress her laughter at the sight of a skinny little Indian from Jackson Heights in a three-piece polyester suit.

You mentioned the G word earlier. Increasingly, the neighborhood has attracted young bankers and tech workers who like having the ability to choose between pupusas and parathas for dinner.

As Amanda Burden, the city’s former planning commissioner, likes to say, gentrification is like cholesterol: There’s good gentrification and bad gentrification. For Jackson Heights, it’s a good thing that there is diversity of income as well as of ethnicity. But big garden apartments that used to sell for $300,000 now cost closer to $1 million, which has had the effect of forcing more and more immigrants into basement apartments.

We’ll get to the basement apartments. The garden apartments first. You’re talking about ones the Queensboro Corporation built to entice middle-class Manhattanites.

Right — places like the Chateau on 81st Street. My younger sister’s best friend lived there. It’s in what is now the neighborhood’s designated historic district, which includes some of the loveliest housing in all five boroughs, constructed mostly between the 1910s and the 1950s. The buildings have pretty slate roofs and all kinds of architectural details, with blocklong interior gardens that you can’t see from the street, which was the point. They’re private gardens. At the Chateau, the garden was designed by the Olmsted brothers, I believe.

 

The Chateau is part of the historic district of Jackson Heights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And gentrification is producing new developments like Roosevelt Parc.

A residential tower, around the corner from Diversity Plaza, by Marvel Architects.

With rooftop lounges, a movie room and a yoga lawn that rent for thousands of dollars a month. In Jackson Heights, the issue around gentrification isn’t just the rent. It’s the fact that a potential tenant at a place like Roosevelt Parc needs to produce all kinds of documents to apply for an apartment. That kind of documentation, even if you’re legal, can be very difficult for new immigrants who haven’t built up credit histories or developed references.

 

Roosevelt Parc, a new residential building designed by Marvel Architects.

 

So rising rents and other obstacles push more people into basement apartments.

Yes. The garden apartments are on the north side of 37th Avenue. We can see basement apartments on the south side. These are mostly pleasant, suburban-looking streets with neat two-story frame houses — you wouldn’t know that dozens of people live in the basements unless you notice the number of mailboxes and satellite dishes. Sometimes you can guess who lives there. I don’t know why but Trinidadians and Guyanese seem to prefer white steel gates.

Inside, the rooms are all occupied by different people, and the basement might have hot beds, meaning cubicles where people share the same bed in shifts. I’ve been in many of these basements. There’s a perception they’re fire traps, and some are, but usually, with just a few fixes, they could be brought up to code.

 

 

The city certainly needs more affordable housing. But even if landlords spent the money to upgrade them, New York, unlike, say, San Francisco or Seattle or Los Angeles, doesn’t seem anxious to legalize lots more “alternative dwellings,” as they’re called.

The city has fallen behind the curve. I think landlords would spend the money. Most of the landlords are immigrants themselves who would have a much easier time getting mortgages if they were able to show that the rents from these basements were legitimate income.

How do you think the pandemic will change things?

It’s an open question whether gentrifiers will continue moving into the neighborhood or whether they’ll now prefer to leave the city for places like Hudson, N.Y. But the taxi drivers and delivery guys who share the basement cubicles don’t have the luxury of teleworking. So they’re not going anywhere.

And where are we going next?

A block from The Chateau, I wanted to point out Community United Methodist Church. There’s a street sign at the corner commemorating the invention of Scrabble, which was played in the church in 1938. It was the invention of a Jackson Heights resident (an unemployed architect) named Alfred Butts. Legions of Scrabble devotees now make pilgrimages to the church, which you will notice also advertises services in Punjabi, Urdu, Bahasa, Korean, Chinese and Spanish. I love that God is worshiped in so many languages in the house where Scrabble was invented. Brooklyn may be known as the Borough of Churches. But Jackson Heights is where, for example, the Jewish Center, on 77th Street, also hosts Pentecostal services, Hindu services and the annual Iftar celebration of Bangladeshi and other Muslims.

 

Community United Methodist Church offers services in multiple languages.

 

That’s rather beautiful.

Look, architecturally speaking, the neighborhood is not Versailles. There are some really unlovely buildings and shabby dwellings in Jackson Heights. But, for me, the area comes down to its people and their stories — and to the surprise and joy you feel walking down a street like 37th Avenue and seeing all the Bangladeshi and Dominican knickknack shops and children’s toys spilling onto the sidewalk, and the people selling sugar cane juice. The neighborhood is an incredibly hospitable place, where a person can come from anywhere, doesn’t necessarily need papers, might have to start at the bottom — literally, in the basement — but can gain a foothold in America.

 

The Kitchen Sink Sundae for eight at Jahn’s.

 

The American dream.

Speaking of which, I thought we might end at a wonderful ice cream store, founded in 1897, Jahn’s, which I used to go to with my family. The signature dish is the Kitchen Sink Sundae for eight.

I’ve seen a video of that sundae on YouTube. It’s the size of a punch bowl. Is that what your family ordered?

Of course, not long after we arrived. And that’s when we realized: This is the promise of the New World. We have found it. It’s the Kitchen Sink Sundae for eight.

Read more here.

Gotham Gazette: Wave of LGBT Candidates Eyes City Council Seats in 2021 Elections

City Council members at a Pride march (photo: Emil Cohen/City Council)

By Andrew Millman

Originally published by the Gotham Gazette on July 23, 2020.

The City Council’s LGBT Caucus could shrink after the 2021 elections, with all five current caucus members — including Council Speaker Corey Johnson — prevented by term limits from running for reelection next year, when all of city government will be on the ballot. However, there are more than a dozen openly LGBTQ candidates running throughout the city to replenish and perhaps grow the ranks of LGBTQ representation in city government, encouraged by advocates and current Council members who launched “LGBTQ in 2021,” an effort to elect more LGBTQ candidates to the 51-seat Council, and inspired by “21 in ‘21,” a similar campaign to elect more women to the Council.

These efforts come as LGBTQ candidates in New York have recently achieved state and national firsts. Mondaire Jones in New York’s 17th Congressional District (Rockland and northern Westchester) and City Council Member Ritchie Torres in the Bronx’s 15th Congressional District appear likely to become, respectively, the nation’s first gay black and gay Afro-Latino members of Congress. In Brooklyn, Jabari Brisport could become New York’s first gay Black state legislator, if his large lead holds in the 25th State Senate District Democratic primary. Kristen Browde was vying to become the state’s first trans legislator in the 93rd Assembly District, but appears to have come up slightly short in a close race.

“What people thought was not possible has become possible,” said Samy Nemir-Olivares, a queer Puerto Rican-Dominican who won his race for District Leader Assembly District 53 (Williamsburg and Bushwick) last month. “Five years ago, we couldn’t get married because of the law. Now, we’re seeing the evolution of the LGBTQ movement from activism and organizing to electoral work.”

“It is very impressive because LGBTQ people are a small number of the population, so it takes a lot more for an LGBTQ candidate to face these challenges of stigma and discrimination,” Nemir-Olivares told Gotham Gazette in an interview. “A majority of our community isn’t enough to win an election, so you have to build coalitions. It’s an act of faith and an act of perseverance.”

As attention turns from the 2020 primaries to the 2021 city government elections, Gotham Gazette revisited the LGBTQ in 2021 effort, which appears to have lost momentum but, after inquiries and as the city rebounds from the coronavirus crisis and the calendar moves ahead, may see new life.

In part through conversations with candidates and advocates, Gotham Gazette has identified at least 15 LGBTQ candidates currently running for City Council in 2021, including in every borough except Staten Island. Erik Bottcher (Council District 3), Phelan-Dante Fizpatrick (CD 3) Chris Sosa (CD 5), Billy Freeland (CD 5), Seth Rosen (CD 6), Marti Gould Allen-Cummings (CD 7), and Kristin Richardson Jordan (CD 9) are running in Manhattan; Elisa Crespo (CD 15) is running in the Bronx; Rod Townsend (CD 22); Alfonso Quiroz (CD 25); and Lynn Schulman (CD 29) are running in Queens; and Crystal Hudson (CD 35), Chi Ossé (CD 36), Josue Pierre (CD 40), and Wilfredo Florentino (CD 42) are running in Brooklyn.

The City Council has never included a trans person, a non-binary person, or queer Black woman, and has not included any openly gay women at all since 2017. That could all change for the start of the next Council session, in January 2022, with several potentially historic candidacies.

How much of a concerted, organized effort there will be to elect LGBTQ candidates to the Council and other city government positions remains to be seen.

“LGBTQ in 2021 was a great idea and it brought together a group of experienced LGBT political operatives. However, once we tried to codify the idea, it appeared ten different people had ten different ideas as to the best way to go forth,” said Melissa Sklarz, a government relations strategist at SAGE, a former co-chair of both the Empire State Pride Agenda and Stonewall Democrats, and a newly-elected District Leader in Queens — one of two trans candidates, along with Emilia Decaudin, who won such positions this year.

Several candidates and activists who Gotham Gazette spoke with for this story similarly expressed uncertainty or confusion over the current state of the formal LGBTQ in 2021 initiative. According to one LGBTQ Council candidate, as of this week, discussions are currently underway among the candidates to revitalize the effort using the infrastructure already established by the project last year.

Three Decades of LGBTQ Representation at the City Council
New York City elected its first openly-gay City Council members in 1991 when Antonio Pagán and Tom Duane won in Manhattan’s Districts 2 and 3, respectively. Duane’s district, which covers the west side of Manhattan from Hell’s Kitchen through Chelsea to Greenwich Village and SoHo, was specifically drawn during the 1991 redistricting with the intention of electing a member of the LGBTQ community to the Council (similarly, districts were also designed with the intention of electing Asian and Dominican Council members). For three decades now, District 3 has been represented by an openly gay Council member, from Duane to Christine Quinn, and currently Johnson, with both the latter two elected Speaker.

“Having LGBT people in the Council, myself as the finance chair and Corey [Johnson] as the Speaker, we’re able to give record levels of funding to LGBT organizations that had never been done before,” said Council Member Danny Dromm, a longtime LGBTQ activist and leader, in an interview.

Dromm was one of the first two openly LGBTQ Council members from outside of Manhattan, elected alongside fellow Queens Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer in 2009, and before that he was the first openly gay elected official in Queens, as a Democratic District Leader. He also cofounded the first Queens LGBT Pride Parade in 1993.

Dromm pointed to the $3.7 million allocated in the city budget to LGBT community-based organizations and another $2.3 million distributed to trans-focused organizations in fiscal year 2020 as evidence of the LGBT Caucus’ impact. “To be honest with you, it’s the LGBT members that bring it up and push it, so we need to continue to have LGBT folks doing that within the City Council,” he said.

“Oftentimes we are left out of conversations, although people mean well. It’s not that we’re excluded, it’s just that they don’t think to mention LGBT issues,” Dromm said. “It’s not just about having elected officials, but building institutions within our community and electeds can help with that, particularly through funding.”

“I think that there’s a greater acceptance and understanding of LGBTQ people, though maybe not as much for transgender and gender-nonconcomforming folks yet, and their candidacies are taken very seriously,” Dromm said, when asked about how running for office has changed for LGBTQ candidates in recent years. He highlighted the candidacies of Crespo and Allen-Cummings as having the potential to be the first trans and non-binary Council members, respectively.

A Special Election on the Horizon
Torres’ likely departure from the Council at the start of next year would trigger a special election sometime in February or March for Council District 15, which includes Belmont, Fordham, Tremont, Norwood, Parkchester, and Crotona Park. Three candidates were already running to succeed Torres. Given quirks election law and the calendar, there will be the special election early in the year to see who holds the seat for most of 2021 as well as regularly-scheduled June primary and November general elections for the next term, which begins January 1, 2022.

The election will also likely be the city’s first attempt at ranked-choice voting, likely concurrently with a special election to replace Donovan Richards in Queens’ 31st Council District as he ascends to the borough president’s office.

One candidate running to replace Torres in District 15 is Elisa Crespo, who currently works as an education liaison for Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and is a board member for the Stonewall Democrats, the city’s largest LGBTQ political club.

“I think people who have struggled the most and have been marginalized the most should be the closest to the decision-making table and because this is how I believe I can do the most good for the most people,” Crespo told Gotham Gazette in a recent interview.

“It’d be a big deal for a woman of color, especially someone who’s had a story like mine, which is a story of overcoming and triumph, to be able to hold this seat,” said Crespo, who was educated in New York City’s public schools and CUNY’s John Jay College and has lived in the city’s public housing system. “I’m a working class-Latina and a product of public institutions. I worked my way up out of nothing.”

Along with possibly becoming the first trans person to become a New York City Council member, she’s also among those hoping to be the first woman in the Council’s LGBT Caucus since 2017 (all five current caucus members are men). “An entire community’s voice has never been heard,” Crespo said when asked about the significance of potentially becoming the city’s first trans Council member.

Crespo’s two opponents in the race as of now are Oswald Feliz, a state committee member for the 78th Assembly District, and Community Board 7 district manager Ischia Bravo. According to July financial disclosures, Crespo has raised $16,707, while Bravo raised $17,546 and Feliz raised $4,747.

Council Candidates Attract National Attention

Last month, the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a national organization with the mission of growing LGBTQ representation in elected office, announced their first five endorsements for next year’s Council races, noting the importance of starting early in New York’s “tough” political landscape.

Those endorsees are Marti Gould Allen-Cummings, Erik Bottcher, Wilfredo Florentino, Seth Rosen, and Lynn Schulman.

Sean Meloy, the Victory Fund’s Senior Political Director, told Gotham Gazette, “we’re not done. These are the first five that have been in touch with us.” Victory Fund’s criteria for endorsements are that candidates must be openly LGBTQ and have a record of fighting for the community, support reproductive freedom, and show viability.

Meloy said a Victory Fund endorsement is a “stamp of approval” that signals to donors and other stakeholders that particular LGBTQ candidates have been vetted and have a shot at winning. He calls the fund “the gay Emily’s List,” referring to the organization that does similar work with women candidates. The two groups share some cofounders.

Meloy points to Torres’ recent success as an example of the Victory Fund’s work building a “pipeline” of LGBTQ candidates. The group backed Torres when he was first running for City Council in 2013 and then again early in his run for Congress. He says the group got the message out nationally that Torres was “the only viable progressive alternative to Ruben Diaz Sr.,” and worked to publicize more broadly Diaz Sr.’s record of homophobia and misogyny.

“We need to elect over 22,544 more LGBTQ people to offices around the country to even have a baseline level of parity in government,” Meloy told Gotham Gazette, noting that there are currently about 843 LGTBQ elected officeholders nationwide. That number has more than doubled since June 2016.

Candidates of Color Chart Own Path

“The LGBTQ movement was for a very long time led by a white face, but now it is a new moment,” said Nemir-Olivares, noting how recent Black Lives Matter protests coincided with Pride Month through demonstrations such as the Queer Liberation March against Police Brutality and Black Trans Lives Matter March. “We’re living at a critical moment at which identities and life experiences are coming into the forefront of political discussion.”

“The LGBTQ community is not in a silo,” Nemir-Olivares continued. “We’ve always been part of the racial justice movement, which includes a lot of queer activists. Before, people wanted to see them as separate issues, but candidates like Jabari Brisport and myself really represent that connection.”

Of the five current members of the Council’s LGBT Caucus, two are people of color, which is not reflective of the city’s LGBTQ population as a whole, which mirrors the demographic proportions of the general population (about three-fifths of New York City’s population is people of color).

“When we talk about the LGBTQ community in New York City, we’re not talking about cisgender white men,” said Wilfredo Florentio, a gay Black candidate running in Brooklyn’s Council District 42.

Florentino has raised $11,731 for his campaign, compared to $23,475 raised by his only opponent in the race, Nikki Lucas, according to the most recent financial disclosure reports.

Several LGBTQ candidates of color, including Florentino, are currently running across the city and, in June, six of them announced that they had formed “a coalition of Black and Brown progressive candidates this Pride Month that offers an historic choice to voters in next year’s elections,” according to a statement put out by the group. The list also includes Crespo, Crystal Hudson (CD 35), Chris Sosa (CD 5), Josue Pierre (CD 40), and Kristin Richardson Jordan (CD 9).

Florentino told Gotham Gazette that “POC LGBTQ candidates are not being considered viable. There is an air of viability as it relates to non-POC candidates, but BIPOC candidates have to work even harder to prove we are qualified.”

Nemir-Olivares agrees, noting that “the founders of the LGBTQ movement were a Black and a Latinx transgender women,” referring to activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.

“Representation matters. If we don’t see ourselves in officials that represent us, how can we ever aspire to serve our community in that way?” Florentino said. “When all of the focus is on non-BIPOC LGBTQ candidates, we are doing a disservice to POC-led movements like Stonewall.”

Richardson Jordan says she is “a Black queer democratic socialist and abolitionist on a mission to disrupt local Harlem district 9 with radical love.” While most of the 2021 LGBTQ candidates consider themselves progressives, Richardson Jordan appears to be the only one as of now who is a member of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. She notes that she was calling for police and prison abolition even before the recent resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests.

This week, Richardson Jordan announced that she had raised $42,046, while incumbent Council Member Bill Perkins, who is not term-limited but may not be running for reelection, has not raised any funds towards a potential reelection campaign as of yet.

In Queens’ Council District 25, Alfonzo Quiroz, who is of Mexican descent, is running to replace the term-limited Dromm.

Speaker’s Heir Apparent

Erik Bottcher, currently Council Speaker Corey Johnson’s district chief of staff, is running to succeed his boss and be the district’s fourth consecutive openly gay Council member. Johnson told The City that he was fully backing Bottcher’s bid when his chief of staff announced in February and Bottcher is supportive of his current boss’ mayoral aspirations as Johnson eyes becoming the city’s first openly gay Mayor.

Bottcher previously worked for Governor Andrew Cuomo, first as a liaison to the gay and transgender communities during Cuomo’s 2010 campaign and then in Cuomo’s gubernatorial administration during the passage of marriage equality in 2011.

When asked how LGBTQ politics has changed in the decade since marriage equality was passed in New York, Bottcher told Gotham Gazette, “Ten years ago when I began in government, we were fighting for things like gays in the military, marriage equality, and visitation rights. We’ve made progress on those issues, but we have so much farther to go, particularly for transgender Americans.”

“Addressing inequities and disparities faced by trans people of color must include funding of programs. Government needs to show the money,” Bottcher said when asked what issues are currently most important for the LGBTQ community. “A strong LGBTQ [City Council] Caucus is needed to advocate for this during the budget process.”

“The next LGBTQ Caucus should have at least seven members, which is what we had until [the end of 2017] when Council Members Rosie Mendez and Jimmy Vacca termed out,” Bottcher said when asked what the ideal number of LGBTQ Council members would be.

“Any time policy is being discussed, people involved in the conversation have to be representative of our city,” Bottcher said, adding “if the people at the table don’t represent New York, that creates an opening for policy that doesn’t serve the people well.”

Bottcher currently has two opponents in the race for District 3, Marni Hasala and Phelan-Dante Fitzpatrick. Hasala is a lawyer and figure skating coach, as well as an activist for tenants’ rights and small businesses. Fizpatrick, who currently works at DSK Retail, is running to be the first gay Black person to represent the district.

As of the July financial disclosures, Bottcher has raised $114,356, the most of any non-incumbent Council candidate running in 2021, compared to Hasala’s $1,740 and Fitzpatrick’s $500.

COVID-19 & Community Responses

“As we look to recover from this pandemic, it’s going to be really important that we’re creating job and housing opportunity for the people who need them,” Crystal Hudson, the former First Deputy Public Advocate for Community Engagement under Jumaane Williams and a candidate in Brooklyn’s Council District 35, told Gotham Gazette.

According to her July financial disclosure, Hudson has raised $66,328 in campaign funds thus far, which is over ten times as much as her nearest opponent in that race.

“All issues are queer issues,” she said in an interview. “The queer community as a whole is in need of all the same things everybody else is in need of and, because we don’t always have access to the same resources, sometimes the need is far greater.”

Hudson pointed to the high levels of homelessness that LGBTQ youth experience as an example of how larger issues can have a particular impact on the LGBTQ community. “They experience homelessness as much as people who don’t fall into that category.”

“Now is as great a time as any for us to show the importance of centering a voice like mine as a black queer woman,” said Hudson. “We lead from a different place. I’m centered on community and I want to follow the lead of my community.”

During the pandemic, Hudson founded Greater Prospect Heights Mutual Aid, a volunteer network of neighbors supplying food and running errands, among other help, for people in need in Prospect Heights and the surrounding areas.

“Running as a black queer woman is always challenging and difficult. I think that’s why there’s not many of us in these spaces,” said Hudson.

“The Council has come a long way,” Hudson said, “but the fact that I have the potential to be the first or among the first two black queer women shows that we have so much further to go.”

Read more here.

LIC Post: Queens Electeds Celebrate Supreme Court Ruling Against Workplace LGBTQ Discrimination

By Allie Griffin

Originally published by the LIC Post on June 15, 2020.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that employers cannot fire workers based on their sexual orientation or gender identity and Queens elected officials are celebrating the historic decision.

The Court ruled that an employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans workplace discrimination based on sex, race, religion and national origin.

The Court ruled in a landmark six-three vote that sex discrimination also applies to gay and transgender workers.

Jackson Heights Council Member and Chair of the Council LGBT Caucus Daniel Dromm praised the ruling.

“History will remember this day as the day that the Supreme Court stood up for the fundamental protections enshrined in the Civil Rights Act,” he said in a statement. “Today the Supreme Court reaffirmed the letter and spirit of Title VII of the Act: that no one should be fired for simply being who they are.”

Dromm spoke of his own experience as one of the first openly-gay public school teachers in New York State. He said the fear of being fired for being gay was “ever-present.”

“Because of this decision, those days have been relegated to the dustbin of history,” Dromm said.

Many Queens lawmakers cheered the Supreme Court decision on Twitter.

Astoria Council Member and Queens borough president candidate Costa Constantinides called today “a historic day for #LGBTQ rights.”

“Even though it took almost 60 yrs since the Civil Rights Act was passed, there is now a guarantee you cannot be fired for who you are or who you love,” he wrote on Twitter.

Southeast Queens Council Member and another BP candidate Donovan Richards also tweeted his support.

“This landmark decision will ensure the LGBTQ community is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve in the work place [sic],” he wrote.

Eastern Queens Council Member Barry Grodenchik took to Twitter as well.

“Huge victory for #LGBTQ rights, human rights, and civil rights today from the #SupremeCourt,” he wrote with a link to a New York Times article on the Court ruling. “A watershed moment in the history of our nation. Forward!”

The ruling was based on three separate cases where employees were fired after disclosing their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Two cases involved gay men who were let go from their jobs. One man was a government employee who was fired after joining a gay softball league in Georgia. The second was a skydiving instructor on Long Island who disclosed he was gay to a customer and was subsequently let go.

The third case was a transgender woman who came out to her funeral home employer in Michigan and was fired two weeks later after having been employed for six years.

Justices Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority decision and was joined by Justices John Roberts Jr., Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh voted against the increased interpretation of Title VII.

Gorsuch said that discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation inherently involves the role of one’s sex.

“An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex,” he wrote. “Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.”

Read more here.

QNS.com: Virtual Queens Pride shines spotlight on history

FACEBOOK/ NYC LGBT HISTORIC SITES PROJECT
Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee members leading the inaugural Queens Pride march in 1993.

By Matt Tracey

Originally published by QNS.com on June 10, 2020

Nothing — not even the coronavirus pandemic — could stop Queens Pride.

Entertainers, bikers, runners, lawmakers, and countless others participated in an hours-long virtual edition of the 28th annual Queens Pride March and Multicultural Festival on June 7.

The online event marked the first time since the borough’s Pride festivities started in 1993 that the event did not take place in person. Queens Pride’s director of operations, Kelvin O. Howell, Jr., kicked off the event by acknowledging the unique circumstances surrounding this year’s festivities.

“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re going virtual and we cannot take it to the streets, but this, too, shall pass, and when it does we will be back on in the streets doing what we do best,” Howell said.

Queens Pride’s Kelvin O. Howell opened up the event with an optimistic message.YOUTUBE/ QUEENS PRIDE

This year’s event, hosted by Marcus Woollen and Candy Samples, leaned heavily on highlighting the history of Queens Pride. Organizers dug back into the archives to feature footage from the earliest days of the borough’s Pride festivities. Out gay Queens City Councilmember Daniel Dromm, who co-founded Queens Pride, recalled an uphill battle to get the event up and running.

“Back in 1992, a lot of people thought I was crazy when I said we needed to have a Pride Parade and Festival here in the borough of Queens,” Dromm said in a video message. “It had never been done in any borough outside of Manhattan before, but the time was right.”

The time was considered to be right because of a combination of recent developments during that era. Julio Rivera, a Puerto Rican gay man, was murdered in 1990 in a hate-motivated attack by three white men, and there was inflammatory resistance — especially in Queens — to Children of the Rainbow, a proposal to introduce an LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum into the city’s schools. Those moments helped expedite the swelling support for a borough-based Pride event.

While history was a running theme during the virtual program, Dromm also encouraged folks to look ahead and focus on making progress in the future.

“We need to move forward even though we are in the middle of this crisis,” Dromm said. “It’s really important that we remain visible and present in all communities in the borough of Queens and beyond.”

The grand marshals were the late Larry Kramer, who died May 27; the Black Lives Matter movement; and Julian Sanjivan, the co-president of InterPride who previously was the march director for Heritage of Pride.

Councilmember and Queens Pride co-founder Daniel Dromm reminded viewers of the origins of the borough’s Pride festivities.YOUTUBE/ QUEENS PRIDE

Among other elected officials on hand included State Attorney General Letitia James, Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, City Comptroller Scott Stringer, out gay City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, State Senators Jessica Ramos, John Liu, and Michael Gianaris, Assemblymembers Alicia Hyndman, Michael G. DenDekker, and David Weprin, Councilmembers Costa Constantinides (a candidate for Queens borough president) and out gay Jimmy Van Bramer, and Acting Queens Borough President Sharon Lee. Rod Townsend, the former president of the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City who is seeking a Council seat from Queens in 2021, also joined in.

Ramos, a strong supporter of sex work decriminalization, elaborated on what she said is her job as an LGBTQ ally to continue to fight for the people of Queens.

“That means repealing the Walking While Trans ban, that means decriminalizing sex work, that means getting rid of the gay and trans panic defense, and that means we are fighting for a school curriculum that is inclusive of LGBTQ history so that our students can see themselves in the history books,” Ramos said.

Gotham Cheer, the Sirens Women’s Motorcycle Club of New York City, the American Veterans for Equal Rights New York, Brooklyn Pride, the Metropolitan Community Church of New York, Pride for Youth, the LGBTQ running and triathlon club Front Runners New York, Gay Men’s Health Crisis CEO Kelsey Louie, the AIDS Center of Queens, and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation were among other participants.

You can view the entire Queens Pride program here:

Read more here.

Queens Chronicle: Queens Pride online June 7; details TBA

Councilman Danny Dromm at last year’s Queens Pride Parade. This year’s celebration is to be held online.

By Peter C. Mastrosimone

Originally published by the Queens Chronicle on June 4, 2020

The annual Queens Pride Parade and Multicultural Festival, normally held in Jackson Heights but canceled along with all other large events due to the coronavirus, is planned to be celebrated online June 7.

Details of the event have not yet been posted on the Queens Pride website and its social media pages but are promised. It is set to run from 12 to 5 p.m.

Back on April 21, when the parade and festival were canceled, City Councilman Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights), chairman of the LGBT Caucus, said the celebration would be held “in a safe and responsible manner.”

“While I am saddened that the Queens LGBTQ Pride Parade will be canceled for the first time in its history, I know that this decision was made for the good of the tens of thousands of people who celebrate with us each year,” said NYC Council LGBT Caucus Chair Daniel Dromm. “Pride marches bring visibility to our community and that has always been key to the success of the wider LGBTQ rights movement. This year, we will continue to be visible and celebrate who we are, but will do so in a safe and responsible manner. This will take some creativity and will look very different from past pride months, but I know we can do it.

“I want to thank Co-Chairs Zachariah Boyer and Mo George plus the entire Queens Pride board for their tireless dedication to the parade. I know that we will once again march down 37th Avenue together next year for what will be an even bigger and more meaningful celebration.”

Queens Pride and the annual parade and celebration are designed to promote awareness and education among and about the LGBTQ community in the borough.

Read more here.

QNS: With June’s Queens Pride canceled, a virtual celebration is now in the works

File Photo/Queens Pride 2019

By Jacob Kaye

Originally published in QNS.com on April 21, 2020

The annual Queens Pride Parade and Festival, which has signaled the start of Pride month in New York City for the past 27 years, has been canceled in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

This is the first time in history that the event – originally scheduled for June 7 – has been canceled.

“While I am saddened that the Queens LGBTQ Pride Parade will be canceled for the first time in its history, I know that this decision was made for the good of the tens of thousands of people who celebrate with us each year,” said Councilman Daniel Dromm, who chairs the LGBT caucus. “Pride marches bring visibility to our community and that has always been key to the success of the wider LGBTQ rights movement. This year, we will continue to be visible and celebrate who we are, but will do so in a safe and responsible manner. This will take some creativity and will look very different from past pride months, but I know we can do it.

Although the Jackson Heights celebration has been canceled, a virtual pride celebration is in the works according to the Board of Queens Pride. An announcement concerning the details of the celebration will be made in the coming weeks.

Vulnerable communities, including the LGBTQ community, transgender individuals of color, sex workers and those living with HIV/AIDS have been disproportionally affected by the coronavirus crisis in the U.S.

“COVID-19 has shown how vulnerable parts of our communities are,” said Zachariah Boyer, the co-chair of Queens Pride. “We must do all we can to keep members of our communities safe and healthy right now.”

Mo George, a co-chair of Queens Pride, hopes that by celebrating virtually this year, the in person celebration can resume in June 2021.

“To many of us it feels like being with family. It is with this feeling in mind that we make the tough decision to physically not hold Pride this year,” George said. “By protecting our family right now — by staying home during this pandemic — we ensure that we can get the family back together in June 2021.”

The first Queens Pride march was held in 1993. It is now the second largest Pride celebration in the New York metropolitan area.

Read more here.

NY1: Why There’s New Pressure to Allow Blood Donations From Gay & Bisexual Men

By Emily Ngo

NEW YORK – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has put out an urgent call for blood donors as the spread of coronavirus threatens the nation’s supply. But men who’ve had sex with men are still barred from answering that call.
Brad Hoylman is New York’s only openly gay state senator. He and others want the ban lifted in the name of saving lives.​

“I take it very personally as a citizen. I want to do my part during this pandemic to help other people. And unfortunately, I can’t,” Hoylman said.

Currently, gay and bisexual men can only give blood if they’ve been celibate for one year.

The policy is meant to keep HIV out of the blood pool. But HIV isn’t limited to gay people. And all blood donations are screened for it.

“Now, we do have ways where you can detect whether or not the blood is HIV-infected or not. So this is a very old-fashioned, discriminatory practice and it needs to be changed,” said City Councilman and LGBT Caucus Chair Daniel Dromm.

The Red Cross says recently canceled blood drives have meant 325,000 fewer donations at a time of great need.

The FDA told NY1 that its policy on gay donors stands, but it’s “actively considering the situation as the outbreak progresses.”

Meanwhile, there’s another consideration.

An openly gay survivor of COVID-19, like City Council Member Ritchie Torres, wouldn’t be able to donate blood and plasma for the purposes of combating the virus.

“We should have the ability to extract antibodies from the blood of LGBTQ survivors and give those antibodies to those who are sick in the hopes of fighting the infection and aiding their recovery. That to me is a matter of life and death,” Torres said.

Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and other U.S. senators have written the FDA to urge policies based on individual risk factors, not ones that rule out an entire community.

Hoylman also wrote the FDA.

He said gay men would contribute an additional 600,000 blood donations.

“The other part I would add about the one-year abstinence: It suggests something very nefarious about gay men and our personal lives that I just reject outright. And I think it’s time that the science dictate policy, not homophobia,” Hoylman said.

See more here.