You might say it's four down and one to go.
Sparked by highly competitive races and a large number of candidates seeking L.I.D. backing, a record four endorsement meetings have been completed since January, with an additional mini-meeting set for mid-July. In the process, L.I.D. members have settled upon endorsements in 3 city wide races, one borough-wide contest, a civil court race, and nine city council races, six of which are open seats. The enclosed palm card lists our endorsements thus far.
Among the endorsements is that of an openly gay city council candidate. Ken Diamondstone, a longtime community activist and member of the L.I.D. board, is running for the open 33rd Council District seat being vacated by Ken Fisher. He faces 3 opponents in the September 11th primary in a district that stretches from Greenpoint to Park Slope.
Our final endorsement meeting of the primary season is scheduled for Wednesday, July 18th beginning at 7 pm. We will be considering endorsements in a number of city council races where candidates did not submit proper paperwork in time to be screened at our last endorsement gathering. The meeting will be held at 633 President Street. Please join us!
SONDA Appears Dead Once Again
The state Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA), which just weeks ago looked to have its best shot at passage in the past 8 years, appears to have languished once again in the state Senate.
The leading statewide force behind the bill, the Empire State Pride Agenda, has expressed optimism throughout the session, following the bill's reporting to the Senate floor calendar at an early point in the legislative session and the newly found backing of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. But even Bruno's pledge to bring the bill to the floor was, apparently, not enough to overcome opposition within the Senate's ultraconservative Republican caucus.
L.I.D.'s efforts focused on Sen. Seymour Lachman, who represents Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Seagate, Coney Island, Windsor Terrace, and parts of Brighton Beach, Kensington, Flatbush, Sunset Park, and Park Slope. Lachman is the only Brooklyn Senator who has not publicly pledged to support SONDA. We remain hopeful of his eventual support, though he did not respond to constituent pressure with a commitment this year.
LID Goes to Albany
Each year, officers and members LID go to our state’s capital to lobby on issues affecting the LGBT community. These Lobby Days are organized by the Empire State Pride Agenda, and are attended by hundreds of community activists from around the state. We were pleased this year that not only LGBT folks and members of P-FLAG participated, as we’ve come to expect, but a sizeable contingent of straight lobbyers came as well—notably, from Brooklyn, a large number of teenagers from Packer High School’s gay-straight alliance, traveling the 150 miles to urge passage of the Dignity for All Students Act, which would mandate that schools take action when students or teachers discriminate based on sexual orientation. The teens, most of them straight, were highly articulate and made us realize that the next generation understands the issue very well!
This year the focus was on SONDA, the Dignity for All Students Act, and on funding for non-AIDS-related social services. (In past years we have also concentrated on the Hate Crimes bill, which we were finally successful with last year, and on fighting fledgling state versions of the Defense of Marriage Act, which fortunately have never seen the light of day.) ESPA attempts to arrange for each lobbyer to have an appointment with her/his state senator and assemblymember, although often because of scheduling conflicts it is necessary to meet with staff people instead of the legislators themselves. This is not, however, a negative—frequently it is the staffers who actually write the legislation and effectively recommend action on positions when the legislator is not as familiar with the issues as we would like.
Because LID is a Brooklyn-wide organization, the officers try visit as many Brooklyn legislators as is feasible. Usually the legislators and their aides are quite welcoming, especially when the contingent (which can consist of only a couple of people to as many as a dozen) contains constituents. Yes, legislators tend to know every address they represent! Lobby Days are educational in both directions—often those doing the lobbying learn a great deal about the legislators who represent them in Albany. While there is never time to meet with all twenty assemblymembers and nine state senators from Brooklyn, we manage to visit both many of our confirmed friends, to thank them for their support, and our future friends, with whom we are a bit more aggressive about pushing the agenda. If you wish to participate next year (it’s generally in April or May each year), contact the Empire State Pride Agenda for details.
Rogowsky Mourned
L.I.D. notes with great sadness the passing of one of our members, Edward Rogowsky, who passed away in late March. At the time of his death, Ed was a member of the New York City Planning Commission, but many of us are most familiar with his long record of leadership on LGBT issues. He was 60.
A professor emeritus of political science at Brooklyn College, Rogowsky was the first "gay liaison" appointed by Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden. He also served for a time as Director of Brooklyn's Office of Community Boards. Last year, he was a driving force in the Bill Bradley for President campaign. In late June, the City Council renamed a section of Sterling Place between 6th and 7th Avenues for Ed.
Our deepest sympathies to his partner Peter and his two sons.
After Snags, Brooklyn Pride Huge Success
Brooklyn's 5th Annual Pride Festival and Parade went off famously on June 9th, after several tense weeks leading up to the festivities. L.I.D. maintained a healthy presence throughout the day, registering voters and collecting petition signatures during the festival, and leading it's marching contingent with a truck, banners and giveaways.
Brooklyn Pride ran into some snags in its attempt to obtain a Street Activity Permit for its Pride Festival, held this year in a new location on Prospect Park West. Previous Festivals were held in Prospect Park, which required a permit only from the Parks Department. Community Board 6’s Street Fair Permit Guidelines require any sponsoring organization to obtain consent from the affected blocks, intended as a courtesy so that residents and merchants are given notification and can thereby plan accordingly. Numerous other requirements were waived for Brooklyn Pride since this is the first year they are proposing a Street Fair.
These rules required Brooklyn Pride to scramble at the last moment to gather and submit petition signatures supporting the Festival from affected blocks. L.I.D. wrote a letter in support of the permit on May 4th, and made numerous phone calls to City Hall and to Community Board 6 in to register our sense that the permit should be approved.
Navigating the arcane city bureaucracy is an arduous task, particularly for an all volunteer organization like Brooklyn Pride and we are glad they successfully met the challenge at hand. We are deeply disturbed, however, by the opposition of community organizations such as Revitalization of the Southern Area of the Slope (ROSAS) who we suspect might not have raised as much of a ruckus for a festival that was catering to a different community.
Our hats are off to all the hard working people who pulled off yet another terrific pride event for Brooklyn. Bravo!
LID Opposes Tymkovich
President Bush's desire to remake the federal courts into an anti-choice, anti-gay, conservative stomping ground has begun, and L.I.D. has gone on record against one of his most offensive early nominees, Timothy M. Tymkovich.
Tymkovich was Colorado's Solicitor General from 1991 to 1996 and defended Colorado’s anti-Gay ballot initiative known as Amendment 2 before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995. Bush pegged Tymkovich for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.
In a June 20 letter to Senators Schumer and Clinton, L.I.D. noted that "while he has claimed that he was merely doing what his job description required, his vigorous statements in the Supreme Court would seem to indicate that he was more than simply doing his job." During oral arguments before the court, Tymkovich stated it was legitimate for Colorado to repeal local anti-discrimination ordinances, and to bar cities from adopting such laws in the future.
New Groups at Shades
Beginning in July, there will be four new groups forming at Shades of Lavender:
All groups are HIV/AIDS and related issues and take place in 12-week cycles. Pre-registration is necessary for enrollment. Please contact us for more information. The groups will discuss a variety of topics relevent to these communities. For more information, contact Shades at: 622-2910 x103/104.
LIDers Honored
Several L.I.D. members were honored a various Pride Month activites in June. Borough President Howard Golden handed out awards to Marjorie Hill, Clarence Patton and Alice Wong. Public Advocate Mark Green honored James Dale and former L.I.D. Co-President Lola Simmons. Congratulations to all!