Date: Wed, 15 Mar 1995 10:37:40 -0500 Reply-To: OBRIENM@DELPHI.COM [ Send all responses to OBRIENM@DELPHI.COM only. Any responses to the list or list-owners will be returned to you. ] What Is The New York State of Mind? An Analysis by Libby Post And we thought we were safe because we lived in New York State. Well, that illusion has been shattered. January marked open season on lesbian and gay rights. First we had Attorney General Dennis Vacco stripping lesbian and gay employees in the Department of Law based on their sexual orientation. Vacco the Republican who defeated open lesbian Karen Burstein [by a very slim margin] in what was am extremely homophobic campaign, repealed his office's executive order which has been in place through two of his predecessors terms Bob Abrams and G. Oliver Koppell. His actions weren't taken lightly however. The Empire State Pride Agenda activated A.N.G.L.E. (Activist Network for Gay and Lesbian Equality) and Vacco's office was inundated with phone calls and letters. When I called I was told the majority of calls were on our side, despite this Vacco has not reinstated the executive order. So now what do the people who have worked in that office for years who were safe in being out on the job to do? Go back in the closet? "Oops, I'm really not a lesbian, sorry." That's not going to work. These people now have to work in a hostile environment . . . just the tip of the iceberg of what's in store for the community under this administration. Politics watchers see Vacco's actions as a trial balloon to gauge public reaction to a similar move by Governor Pataki to repeal the state's executive order protecting all lesbian and gay employees working for the Executive Chamber and state agencies. Pataki has not made this decision yet. However it is clear he is being pressured by the conservatives who helped elect him. "Bruno a Bigot" Not too soon after Vacco's actions, new State Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno (R Rensselaer) declined Senate staffers domestic partner health insurance benefits and said that he did not want to promote an "abnormal lifestyle." Bruno's office, too, was inundated with calls of outrage. Democratic State Senate Minority leader Martin Connor re sponded to Bruno with a two page letter urging his reconsid eration. The Pride Agenda organized press Conferences in New York City and Albany. In Albany, open lesbian Assemblywoman Deborah Glick denounced the actions of Bruno and Vacco saying they set a bad example and created an atmosphere conducive to gay bash ing. Glick said she was outraged at Bruno for calling her life and the lives of millions of gays and lesbians in the state abnormal. "It is not a dangerous lifestyle," said Glick "It is not a lifestyle. It is who we are. A lifestyle is whether you choose to have a country home or a beach home.. That's a lifestyle. This is about our basic human dignity." In media interviews, Pride Agenda Executive Director Dick Dadey was direct. He simply called Bruno "a bigot." Interestingly, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has no problem extending domestic partner benefits to Assembly em ployees. He has not been taken in by the budgetary rhetoric Bruno responded with after he realized he overstepped his bounds. Silver sees this as a matter of equity. At least someone does. Troy's Own As the statewide community countered these offenses, the local Capital District community was confronted with one of the most homophobic attacks by am elected official since former Albany Alderman Tom Burch's repugnant remarks about lesbians and gays in 1987 at the first vote for the Human Rights Ordinance. This time, the voices of hatred came from across the river in Troy where City Councilman James Ogden said in an interview that he believes that gays and lesbians would end up in hell because our "lifestyle" (there's that L word again) is not condoned by God. While local lesbian and gay activists responded with letters, phone calls and media in terviews, one of his colleagues Troy District 4 Councilman Bill Pascareli said "No one is in any position to make a statement like that, I honestly believe God loves everyone." Community Council President Bill Pape's letter to Ogden was quoted in the Troy Times Record. "I urge you to reflect on the dangerous hostility reflected by your public statement. If you allow these public statements to stand you will lose any moral credibility to perform your duties to fairly represent all your constituents, many of whom are lesbian or gay." DeJa Vu All Over Again You'd think that was all we were up against in the past eight weeks. But you should know better. Domestic partnership is on the table in Albany as well as in the Capitol. Just a few weeks ago, Albany Alderman Michael Hall at the behest of the Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club introduced a domestic partner registry bill in the Albany Common Council. The word is the votes are there for it despite the vocal op position of the likes of James Bruner and Bill Gilday. You might remember them from the ordinance battle--all fire and brimstone and very little substance. 1 What's interesting here is Mayor Jerry Jennings' silence. In 1993 he ran strong with the support of ERDC and many in the community. But now he's hedging his bets on our account. He won't say whether or not he supports the registry and is instead "waiting to see what the Council does." He's not talking about the Community Council but the City Council. Perhaps hizzoner needs as much education on this issue as he did on the ordinance way back in 1987. Or perhaps the wink and the nod has already happened and the issue is a forgone conclusion. The question is whose conclusion. In Community's January issue there was a call for local lesbian and gay Public Employee Federation (PEF the state's professional union) members to organize within the union to make sure the domestic partner benefits extended by Governor Cuomo are not bargained away in the current round of contract negotiations. In just a few short weeks, meetings took place, organizing was done and last week a group of lesbian and gay PEF members met with the chief of the negotiating committee, a member of the same committee and the assistant to the PEF president. They were told the domestic partner benefit had just been put on the bargaining table that morning and that it would be considered as important a benefit, say as, dental coverage. The PEFers will keep meeting and organizing to make sure the union doesn't cave in. It is not clear however, where the other state unions stand on this issue. If the last eight weeks is any indication of what's in store, batten down the hatches and get ready to fight the good fight locally, statewide and nationally as well. (Newt and Jesse and Dick Armey have already foreshadowed--like a ton of bricks-- what we can expect in Washington, D.C.) So the next time someone tells you you live in liberal New York State . . . au contraire! Let them know it is all media hype. We might as well be in Kansas Dorothy. [from COMMUNITY, a monthly newsjournal published by the Capital District Gay and Lesbian Community Council, Inc., Albany, New York.] QUIT