New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn lost her bid to become New York’s first openly gay and first female mayor on Tuesday, finishing third in a bruising Democratic primary in which she was assailed on issues unrelated to her sexual orientation.

With pro-LGBT candidate Bill de Blasio, who holds the city’s elected post of Public Advocate, holding a commanding lead in the final weeks of the campaign, Quinn struggled to come in second.

A second place finish could have placed her in an Oct. 1 runoff election against de Blasio if de Blasio failed to reach a 40 percent threshold needed to win the Democratic nomination outright.

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NYC politician Christine Quinn

BY MERRYN JOHNS
Curve

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s identity as an out gay woman is essential to her. She’s been out since the beginning of her political career—and boycotted New York’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade for not allowing her to march as an out lesbian.

“I believe that people want government that delivers for them, that is focused on them and making their lives better. That’s what I’ve done.” She cites the jobs she brought to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the elimination of thousands of housing violations in the city, and the 4,100 schoolteachers’ jobs she’s saved—even when it meant opposing Mayor Bloomberg. And as to the buzz that women and lesbians are abandoning her late in New York City’s mayoral race, “Let me tell you,” she says, “I couldn’t be more gratified by the support I am getting from women and the LGBT community. It’s easy for people to criticize. It’s hard to get things done. I get things done, that’s why I’m getting a great response out there.”

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NYC mayoral candidate Christine Quinn

BY CHRIS HUQUERIZA
dot429

New York mayoral candidate Christine Quinn, an out lesbian, revealed her plan for her four-year term if she is elected, regarding New York’s LGBT community. Quinn’s proposal details five major initiatives.

The first two are establishing a major office of HIV/AIDS Policy and building New York City’s first LGBT Senior Housing Community. Quinn’s third initiative for New York’s LGBT community would be to decrease LGBT homeless youth. Quinn’s fourth initiative focuses on “effectively serving” New York’s LGBT community through its city agencies. Quinn’s last initiative is “redoubling efforts” to fight LGBT hate crimes as well as promoting tolerance. To achieve success, she plans to create a “regular and sustained law enforcement strategy for high-target neighborhoods” with New York’s Police Department.

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Demonstrators in NYC (Craig Ruttle)

BY LILA SHAPIRO
Huffington Post Gay Voices

Organized by out lesbian City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, New York City held an anti-violence march following the killing early Saturday morning of Mark Carson, an openly gay man, by someone allegedly screaming anti-gay slurs.

Serena Poon and Melissa Cerezo marched along shouting “Love Conquers Hate.” The two women got married in Brooklyn on the same day Carson was killed. “We want the streets to be safe for our kids,” Poon said. After the rally, Sharon Stapel, the leader of the LGBT advocacy group the Anti-Violence Project, said she was gratified by the turnout at the rally, but that the work is far from over. “I hope that this is actually the beginning of a community-wide call to action where people actually come together and work to create the safety that we’ve been talking about today.”

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