December 17, 2007
Gay Group Asks: If Elected, Which Giuliani Would We See?
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
If elected to the Presidency, which Giuliani would we see?--asks the GLBT group Empire State Pride Agenda.
Citing a quotation from Alan Van Capelle that appeared in the Washington Post on Nov. 27, the Web site presents a time-line of Giuliani's pro-GLBT work while mayor of New York City.
Van Capelle was quoted in the Post as wondering, "The big, big question is: if Giuliani becomes president, which Giuliani will he be on our issues? The Giuliani we knew as mayor? Or the Giuliani we're seeing as a candidate for president?"
It's a crucial question, given the equitable manner with which Giuliani treated GLB citizens as during his mayoral tenure.
The Empire State Pride Agenda Web site sketched out Giuliani's record on GLBT issues, starting with a letter that Giuliani sent to the Pride Agenda in 1997 that promised the mayor would work to pass legislation that would extend legal prtoections to the gay and lesbian families.
Reads the Web site's account, "Giuliani reiterates several times in the letter his commitment to having government treat domestic partners the same as married persons."
In 2000, Giuliani established a hate Crimes Task Force and encouraged the state assembly to pass hate crimes legislation, as well as calling for federal protections for GLBT citizens.
Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Giuliani, together with New York State's Governor and Attorney General, sent a letter to President Bush to argue for the inclusion of domestic partners and committed same-sex life partners in the Sept. 11 federal victims' compensation fund.
A video clip at the site also shows Giuliani in 1998, signing New York City's domestic partnership law, at the time the most comprehensive bill in terms of recognizing and protecting gay and lesbian families.
Another video clip shows Giuliani at a dinner hosted by Pride Agenda, only weeks after Sept. 11. In his remarks, the mayor praises openly gay Mark Bingham, who is thought to have fought terrorists on board Flight 93 and helped divert the plane from its intended Washington, D.C. target; the plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
The Empire State Pride Agenda site also points out that as mayor, Giuliani appointed openly gay people to important posts in his administration.
Since he began his presidential campaign, however, Giuliani has attempted to downplay his earlier accomplishments on behalf of the GLBT community, the site said.
The site included a statement that Pride Agenda did not endorse Giuliani in 1993, nor in 1996.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
