Lawmakers Shelve DecrimNY Proposals

Alphonso David, who for the past four years held a key post at the pinnacle of New York politics as counsel to Governor Andrew Cuomo, has been named the new president of the Human Rights Campaign, the group announced ... Show more

on June 25. In its press release, HRC, the nation’s leading LGBTQ lobbying group , noted that David, a 48-year-old African-American gay man, will be the first person of color and first civil rights attorney to lead the organization in its four-decade history. Prior to becoming the governor’s counsel, David had led civil rights efforts in Cuomo’s office dating back to Cuomo’s term as state attorney general and, prior to that, served as special counsel to the State Division of Human Rights. For three years before joining state government, he was a staff attorney at Lambda Legal. In a written statement, Deb Taft, the chair of the HRC Board Foundation, said, “Alphonso has devoted his career to expanding the civil rights of LGBTQ people across New York State and the nation. At a time when LGBTQ people, women, people of color, immigrants and refugees, and so many others are being confronted with daily attacks on our most basic rights, Alphonso is the fierce, compassionate, and strategic

James Bidgood’s Sexy Phantasmagorical World

Advocates were unable to prod New York State lawmakers to move on three criminal justice measures that disproportionately affect LGBTQ people — especially trans women of color — before the end of the legislative session o... Show more

on on June 21. Lawmakers bolted Albany on June 21 having failed to take action on a campaign to repeal the loitering for the purposes of prostitution law, provide record relief for sex trafficking survivors, and curb the use of solitary confinement in the State of New York despite a months-long effort by the DecrimNY coalition, advocates, and several legislators. In a compromise of sorts, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, all three Democrats, announced an agreement — to be “implemented administratively” — to reduce solitary confinement. Yet, as some Democrats hailed the 2019 legislative session as a sweeping success, those involved with the DecrimNY coalition were quick to remind folks that many urgent priorities facing the most marginalized groups remain unresolved. “A lot of legislators talked about how progressive the session was,” Nina Luo, a spokesperson for DecrimNY, told Gay City News on June 25. “But whe

LGBTQ Pride Shows in the South Bronx

To immerse yourself in the dazzling, mind-boggling photographic oeuvre of James Bidgood is to be a space and time traveler, experiencing a myriad of worlds, peopled by the most succulently beautiful of youths — with matado... Show more

dors in Spain, sexy Frenchman in Paris, Midwestern farm boys in overalls barely held up by one precarious suspender, or, even underwater, with glistening male sea nymphs bearing bejeweled sunken treasure. The artist, himself, never actually went to any of these places. But he did create them all, from the ground up, in his tiny Hell’s Kitchen apartment in the 1960s, ingeniously using skills honed at Parsons School of Design. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1933, he arrived in New York at age 18 and was immediately swept into a pre-”Pose” universe of underground drag bars and balls, pornography, and avid hustlers. He found a home at the legendary drag bar Club 82 as resident set and lighting designer. Flouting the era’s repressive, even criminal policy toward public homosexuality, Bidgood erotically celebrated the male form and bulging genitalia in his own near-psychedelically charged, highly stylized manner. His work appeared in publications like Muscleboy and The Young Physique, whic

Judge Slams Shut NJ Conversion Therapy Scam

Crosswalks were painted in rainbow colors, large Rainbow Flags waved in the air, and LGBTQ residents in the Bronx were all smiles as they celebrated queer liberation on June 23 in the final borough-specific Pride event be... Show more

fore the WorldPride March on June 30. The annual Bronx Pride festivities commenced with a late-morning rally near the Bronx County Courthouse followed by a march and an afternoon festival at 149th Street at Third Avenue, with live entertainment and booths lined with food vendors, shops, and local LGBTQ and community groups. The rally featured speeches by politicians including Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who spoke about the importance of fighting for LGBTQ rights but underscored the need for folks to allow queer people to lead on issues that most directly affect them. “What does the LGBT fight mean in a post-marriage equality world?” Ocasio-Cortez asked. “It means making PrEP free for all people. It means tackling the homeless crisis of our LGBT youth. It means making sure no human and no trans person ever dies again in custody. It means no one is denied a job because of their gender identity.” She added, “The only way we can do that is because of people like you on th

Key NYS Co-Parent Precedent at Risk

In a scathing June 10 opinion, a New Jersey judge ordered the immediate dissolution of a so-called conversion therapy organization that he found was an “alter ego” of a group convicted in his courtroom four years a... Show more

rs ago for violating the state’s Consumer Fraud Act. Judge Peter F. Bariso, Jr., in Hudson County Superior Court, found that the Jewish Institute for Global Awareness (JIFGA) had picked up where Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH) — shut down in a settlement agreement following the 2015 jury verdict under the Consumer Fraud Act — left off. That settlement agreement permanently barred Arthur Goldberg, Elaine Berk, and others running JONAH from engaging in therapy aimed at changing the sexual orientation of gay and lesbian people or transgender people’s gender identity. The 2015 jury verdict followed a lengthy trial in which JONAH clients testified about the absurd and extreme treatments to which they were exposed. Many of the clients were young people pushed into JONAH’s hands by religiously observant parents in a desperate attempt to “turn them straight.” The jury verdict concluded that JONAH was engaged in consumer fraud, misrepresenting its ability to change a

Puerto Rico Cultivates Its Own Kind of Pride

A 2016 ruling from New York’s highest court that overruled a 25-year-old precedent barring a same-sex co-parent without legal or biological ties to a couple’s child from seeking custody or visitation rights could b... Show more

ld be in jeopardy as the result of a gay biological father’s appeal to the US Supreme Court. The New York Court of Appeals, three years ago, in Brooke S.B. v. Elizabeth A.C.C., ruled that when there is clear and convincing evidence that a same-sex couple agreed to have a child and raise the child together — where only one of them would be the biological parent — and both parties performed parental duties and bonded with the child, the co-parent would have the same rights as the biological parent in any later custody dispute. Now, a gay biological dad who lost custody of his twin children to his former gay partner as a result of the Brooke S.B. precedent has asked the nation’s high court to rule that his 14th Amendment Due Process rights were violated. Frank G. and Joseph P. made a joint decision to have a child, and Joseph’s sister, Renee, became pregnant through assisted reproductive technology using Frank’s sperm. The three entered into a written agreement under which Renee would