NYPD Resists Calls for Vice Squad Probe

At the LGBT Community Center’s annual dinner, held April 18 at Cipriani Wall Street, the West 13th Street institution honored out lesbian actor and writer Lena Waithe, who won a 2017 Emmy for her writing for ... Show more

r the Netflix series “Master of None”; CNN out gay anchor Don Lemon; Google, which donated a $1 million toward the Center’s work on oral histories related to the Stonewall National Monument; and Lloyd Blankfein, senior chairman of Goldman Sachs, whom the Center identified as being the first major CEO to come out against the Defense of Marriage Act. The evening drew 800 guests and raised approximately $2 million for the Center’s programming. Comment on this story.

Conquerors and Dreamers

The NYPD significantly escalated tensions with advocates for sex workers on April 18 when a spokesperson said a letter from four local elected officials calling for an investigation into the department’s handling of sex w... Show more

work cases made “sweeping generalizations” that “blatantly mischaracterized” the department. The response from the NYPD, in turn, prompted some advocates to blast the department for itself running prostitution rings while resisting a potential probe. The letter calling for the investigation, delivered on April 5 to city Department of Investigation (DOI) Commissioner Margaret Garnett and DOI Inspector General Philip K. Eure, said a DOI investigation of the Vice Squad is “both warranted and necessary” at a time “of decaying confidence in the police.” Out gay City Councilmember Ritchie Torres of the Bronx, who chairs the powerful Committee on Oversight and Investigations, State Senator Jessica Ramos of Queens, and Assemblymembers Dan Quart of Manhattan and Ron Kim of Queens signed the letter charging that the NYPD Vice Squad “is a traditional hotbed of corruption. With vast institutional issues and contradictory directives, it’s a citywide department deserving of scrutiny.” The p

Two Popes and a Comedian Walk into the Vatican…

The Metropolitan Opera’s 2019 “Ring Cycle” seems to improve with each installment. The “Siegfried” matinee on April 13 provided the debut of German tenor Stefan Vinke, who proved a revelation, scoring a personal triumph... Show more

al triumph. Usually, the Siegfried interpreter is the weak point of any “Ring” production — invariably the performer looks and sounds too old for the character who is supposed to be an athletic, teenage golden boy. Siegfried is onstage constantly in all three acts and his music is punishing declamation written close to the upper break of the tenor voice. “Siegfried” is supposed to be the joyous “scherzo” section of the “Ring.” But too often with a weather-beaten and charmless lout as the hero, it is as much an endurance test for the audience as for the leading tenor. Vinke bounded onstage with exuberance, energy, and total self-possession. The voice is big and penetrating with a true tenor resonance and placement — Vinke is not a pushed-up baritone like many a heldentenor before him. One never got the sense of husbanding the resources, which worried me, but he sailed through Act I, climaxing with an exultant forging song with excellent rhythm on the anvil and firmly-attacked high not

A Passover Message from the Southern Border

Fresh on a report in The New York Times that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI may be provocatively challenging the moral authority of his successor, Pope Francis — especially on issues of sexuality — comes news that Francis... Show more

ncis met with a British comedian and made what one advocate for queer Catholics is calling “groundbreaking pro-LGBT statements.” According to Francis DeBernardo, who heads up New Ways Ministry, a 42-year old national Catholic ministry of justice and reconciliation for LGBTQ people and the Church, Francis, in a brief audience with Stephen K. Amos, responded to the comedian’s account of the rejection he has faced as a gay man. “Giving more importance to the adjective [gay] rather than the noun [man], this is not good,” the pope told Amos. “We are all human beings and have dignity. It does not matter who you are, or how you live your life – you do not lose your dignity. There are people that prefer to select or discard people because of the adjective. These people don’t have a human heart.” In a release from New Ways Ministry, DeBernardo said, “What is critically important in these latest remarks is that it shows the pope prizing the Church’s social justice tradition over the sexual e

Reclaim Pride Coalition Blasts Community Center

[Two weeks ago, Rabbi Yael Rapport and Rabbi Mike Moskowitz from Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, New York City’s LGBTQ synagogue, joined a delegation from the American Jewish refugee assist... Show more

stance nonprofit HIAS and clergy from T̵ 7;ruah, an organization of rabbis dedicated to defending human rights, to the Southern border, encompassing Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico itself. The delegation bore witness to the humanitarian crises taking place there, deepened their knowledge and sharpened their analysis of the issues at play, and strategized a Jewish response.] During the seder there is a universal custom to recount the 10 plagues while spilling out a drop of wine for each one. The first plague is dam, blood. Why is this the first plague? We learn that all of the Egyptians were punished through the Nile turning into blood because Pharaoh decreed that the Hebrew children should be separated from their parents and drowned. The commentators ask, “Why was the entire nation punished if it was only a few people who actually carried out the decree?” Because responsibility falls on the community. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel writes: “In a free society, few are guilty, al

Judith Clark Granted Parole

With just 10 weeks to go before it produces an alternative march in New York City on the last Sunday in June, the Reclaim Pride Coalition has issued an open letter stating it will no longer meet at the Lesbian, Gay, B... Show more

isexual & Transgender Community Center and denouncing The Center. “The attitudes and actions of The Center appear to be rooted in transphobic, racist, and classist attitudes,” the group wrote in the April 18 open letter. “It is these very attitudes that the community looks toward an institution like The Center to resist and expunge. Instead, The Center largely caters to the more privileged members of the LGBTQTSIA+ community while failing to provide a safe and welcoming space to its more vulnerable and marginalized members.” The Coalition’s unhappiness with the agency grew when The Center rented space for a March 28 meeting of the #WalkAway Campaign, a conservative group that seeks to convince Democrats to leave that party and join the right wing. The town hall was to feature Brandon Straka, the gay man who founded the campaign in 2018, and three other LGBTQ speakers. The Center canceled the rental after an outcry from a number of groups including the Coalition. “It was the Walk