Giuliani, with Bloomberg, at the Gay Pride March in 2001. Try not to get distracted by the gay and the lesbian just over his shoulder to the right.Photo: Patrick McMullan
Rudy Giuliani has had gay friends for years. In fact, after he was kicked out of Gracie Mansion by Donna Hannover, he crashed at the pad of two of his gay BFFs. So he of all people should know, YOU DO NOT WALK AWAY FROM A BITCH WHILE HE IS TALKING TO YOU. That’s what he’s been trying to do lately, as gay groups reach out to him to maintain the pro-LGBT agenda he had as mayor. Since the summer, he’s been slowly retreating on his support of gay issues and trying to avoid the topic in his campaign platform. So Alan Van Capelle from the Empire State Pride Agenda, had his team assemble “The Giuliani Files,” a record of all of the letters and speeches Giuliani made to ESPA, including videos of testimony and addresses. Now that he’s afraid to talk about (or to) the gays, Capelle thought a walk down memory lane, to a place where Giuliani was a Friend of Friends of Dorothy, might be nice.
• He took part in the annual NYC Pride March and held annual Pride celebrations at Gracie Mansion where he lived as mayor.
• He established and funded a Hate Crimes Task Force in 2000 so the city could fully investigate and prosecute bias cases.
• He was one of the first Republicans in New York to publicly support a statewide and federal hate-crimes bill that included violence motivated by anti-gay hatred.
• He supported the passage of a statewide sexual-orientation non-discrimination bill.
• He maintained $1.5 million in funding in the city’s budget for the LGBT community center’s capital campaign.
• He made high-level appointments of openly LGBT people to his administration.
• He signed domestic-partner legislation in 1998 that at the time was the strongest such bill of its kind in the nation.
And, like we could ever forget, he dressed in drag and got motorboated by Donald Trump.
The Giuliani Files [ESPA via Radar and WP]
