Cuomo LGBT Memorial Pick Draws Praise, Fire
BY ANDY HUMM | Monuments to cataclysm — from the Vietnam War Memorial wall in Washington bearing the names of tens of thousands of American soldiers killed in that divisive US “police action” to the 9/11 Memorial waterfalls marking the site of the obliterated World Trade Center towers and the thousands who perished that day — […]
Council Honors Six LGBT Leaders at Pride
PHOTO ESSAY BY DONNA ACETO | At a June 8 celebration at City Hall, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and the seven-member LGBT caucus honored six leaders in New York’s LGBT community. The honorees were Jennifer Flynn Walker, a co-founder and longtime leader at Voices of Community Activists & Leaders (VOCAL-NY), Charles Rice-Gonzalez, an author and the […]
2016 Gay City News Impact Award Honorees
Stuart Appelbaum: A Gay Voice in American Labor’s Top Ranks The president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a post he has held since 1998, Stuart Appelbaum is one of the most influential out gay people in the American labor movement. Chartered in 1937 as an affiliate of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, […]
After ESPA, Picking Up the Pieces of Our Agenda
BY PAUL SCHINDLER | Reaction to the Empire State Pride Agenda’s stunning December 12 announcement that it was folding up its tent is comparable to the way people talk about the weather. Everybody complained about it, but the big question is what can be done about it. A number of people who have spoken to Gay […]
ESPA Leadership Pushes Back on Charge They’ve Declared “Mission Accomplished”
BY PAUL SCHINDLER | In the face of shock, chagrin, and some withering criticism both on social media and from past executive directors, top staff and board members at the Empire State Pride Agenda pushed back against the notion they had declared “Mission Accomplished” in their December 12 announcement that they were winding down major operations […]
Citing Win on Cuomo’s Trans Rights Directive, Pride Agenda Folds Up Tent
BY PAUL SCHINDLER | Citing its success in winning new state regulations protecting transgender New Yorkers from discrimination, the Empire State Pride Agenda has announced it will close down major operations in early 2016. In a press release issued on the evening of December 12, the organization indicated that it hoped to maintain a political […]
Andy Warhol “Superstar” Holly Woodlawn Dead at 69
BY PAUL SCHINDLER | Holly Woodlawn, one among the bright firmament of “superstars” created in Andy Warhol’s Factory that in ‘60s and ‘70s Manhattan produced experimental films and other performance art, died of cancer-related causes in Los Angeles on December 6. The Puerto Rican-born transgender actress and cabaret singer was 69. Woodlawn won wide attention […]
Cuomo Employs State Regs to Provide Anti-Bias Protections to Transgender New Yorkers
BY PAUL SCHINDLER | Governor Andrew Cuomo used the occasion of the Empire State Pride Agenda’s annual Manhattan fall dinner to announce new regulations that will provide anti-discrimination protections in employment, housing, public accommodations, and access to credit for transgender New Yorkers. The regulations will come from the New York State Division of Human Rights, which […]
This Year, What Activists, the Community Marched For
BY ANDY HUMM | The LGBT Pride Parade in New York has largely become one long –– and I mean really long, at seven hours-plus –– infomercial for businesses, from banks to Broadway shows, that want the patronage of LGBT folks and those sympathetic to us. But LGBT and AIDS activist and service groups continue […]
Stepping Up the GENDA Pressure One More Time
BY PAUL SCHINDLER | LGBT rights advocates and elected officials gathered outside City Hall on March 12 to press the case for enactment of the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) in Albany this spring. The press conference, organized by the Empire State Pride Agenda, and featuring several out gay members of the City Council as well […]
