New York Democratic Primary Endorsements

Hi there. Here is who I am voting for and/or endorsing in the Democratic Primary on September 14th.

STATEWIDE

Senator - Kirsten Gillibrand - I was unsure about her but she fought hard for a strong public option in the health care reform bill. She is a strong supporter of same sex marriage and I was particularly pleased to find out that she opposes the death penalty. She's no Sherrod Brown or Bernie Sanders, but she is certainly not objectionable from a progressive point of view.

Attorney General- Eric Schneiderman - I can't say enough good things about him. Schneiderman has been a progressive hero in the State Senate, fighting for tenants rights, marriage equality, and bucking the corrupt leadership at every turn. There are some other good candidates but none with the track record of fighting for social justice that Schneiderman has.

LOCAL

Congress - 14th District - Carolyn Maloney - Maloney is a solid progressive. She supports single payer health care, opposes the death penalty and has worked to reign in credit card company abuses. Her challenger, Reshma Saujani is a wall street hack who was just eviscerated in a piece by Wayne Barrett in the Village Voice.

State Senate - 30th district - Bill Perkins - Perkins is being challenged for re election by an opponent who says Bill hasn't been supportive of charter schools. Perkins voted to raise the charter cap but only after important reforms were included that ban for-profit charters and address "co-location" issues when a charter school shares space with a regular public school. Perkins has been a fighter for tenants rights, marriage equality, labor rights and social justice. He deserves to be re-elected.

State Senate - 33 district - Gustavo Rivera - Rivera is challenging the most embarrassing and corrupt fool in NYS government, Pedro Espada. Espada threw the state into chaos when he switched to the Republican Party and then demanded to be made majority leader for the Dems to get his vote back. He is bought and paid for by real estate interests and has single handedly blocked legislation that would strengthen tenant protections. Gustavo Rivera is a strong progressive who will be a team player and work to represent this low income district as opposed to the wealthy developers Espada sells his vote to.

State Senate - 32 district - Charlie Ramos - Ramos is challenging, Ruben Diaz Sr, a sickening bigot who has been the main reason marriage equality has failed in the State Senate. Diaz is a despicable blowhard who is an embarrassment to the state. It is critical to the credibility of the Democratic Party that Diaz and Espada are defeated in this primary. These districts are in the Bronx but they are probably the most important elections in the whole state on Tuesday. If you can contribute or volunteer, please do..

http://gustavoforstatesenate.com/

http://www.charlieramos2010.com/

Identity Politics #fail

In the wake of Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle's decision to veto a bill that would have granted same-sex couples most of the rights of marriage there has been an understandably ferocious response online. There have been many calls to "hate straight people". Really? Do we really want to go there now? Are we going to divide the world into "LGBT" and "straight" and judge everyone according to this duality? This on the same week a Federal Judge in Massachusetts struck down the "Defense of Marriage Act"? Identity Politics pretty much destroyed the left in the 90's and here it is again to distract us and help fuck up everything again.

Let's take a step back for a minute. Dolores Huerta, founder of the United Farm Workers and member of Democratic Socialists of America is straight and has fought tirelessly for decades against oppression of all kinds including GLBT oppression. Andrew Sullivan is gay and was a big supporter of the Iraq war as well as Thatcherite economic policies that hurt the working class. I'll stand with Dolores over Andrew any day.

In 2006, openly gay Sean Patrick Maloney was running for Attorney General of New York against Andrew Cuomo. Both supported marriage equality. But while Cuomo opposes the death penalty, Maloney highlighted his support of executions. I voted for Cuomo. I didn't have to think about it for a minute. I don't care who you fuck, if you are in favor of state killing and preemptive war, you are not a part of the movement for social justice. I'd vote against an openly gay candidate who opposed universal health care or was against increasing the minimum wage no matter their position on marriage. There is a very wealthy and powerful element of the gay rights movement that would gladly ignore economic and social injustice as long as they have the right to marry. There are many working class straight people facing physical violence at this moment trying to organize low wage workers in dangerous parts of the country. This makes dividing the world into LGBT=good, straight=bad exceedingly problematic.

And that's the thing. These labels are simplistic. Sure I have felt oppression as a Queer person. But people of all shapes, sizes, orientations, colors, and genders are hurting all over the place right now and we are more powerful together than apart. A single straight woman working a back breaking job 60 hours a week at subsistence wages with no health insurance and no Union to advocate for her dignity. I dare say she has a harder life than David Geffen who can't get married. Is she indulging in straight privilege? Many of us in the fabulous ghetto of Manhattan with our iphones and open bars know nothing of this kind of economic deprivation and humiliation. But it's not a contest.

We must fight for marriage equality, yes. But, for me, this issue is one of many. The right to join a union, the right to quality health care, the right to earn a living wage if you have a job. These are fundamental to human dignity. The gap between rich and poor continues to grow and there is so much suffering. This suffering, these humiliations hit every gender, race, and orientation. I refuse to be a "one issue voter" seeing everything only through the lens in which it affects me. Mayor Bloomberg supports marriage equality but he opposes a living wage bill for low wage workers, supports a racist "stop and frisk" policy by the NYPD that detains and humiliates thousands of New Yorkers a year (90% of whom are charged with nothing) So I did not vote for Bloomberg. I wasn't willing to throw other people under the bus so my community can get what we deserve (especially considering the other candidate supported marriage rights also) If we are to achieve anything approaching a just society, it has to be a group effort. We need to work together to make sure everyone has the right to get married, to have quality health care, to be paid a living wage and to be treated with respect and dignity. Of course, all this overlaps, Class is the real dividing line in this country and millions of LGBT people are denied health care and the right to collective bargaining just like their straight brothers and sisters. You can't get married if you're dead from lack of insurance.

So if you want marriage equality, volunteer to elect candidates to the New York State Senate who support the cause. There are many straight members who stood up and voted yes last time. But let's also be there in solidarity with everyone, whatever their orientation, who fights for justice and human dignity in our society. Divided we fail.

Health Care Meltdown

Again today I searched blogs, news sites and anything I could for news on the progress of Health Care Reform. Some days the news seems good, like the other day when Obama spoke to Senate Democrats and implored them not to abandon comprehensive reform. Today it didn't look good, when he seemed passive and spoke of Congress dropping the ball. Al Franken is pissed the white house hasn't offered more leadership. All of this is confusing and leaves me more and more worried nothing is going to get done.

The consequences of inaction are devastating in every respect. Devastating for millions of people who are living in fear that any illness will destroy them financially and it will be rightly devastating for the Democratic Party. If Democrats fail to use the largest majorities they have had in a generation to enact their signature legislative proposal, one that they have fought for since the days of FDR, I don't know what the purpose of the Party is at this point.

The way forward is clear. The Senate needs to pass a reconciliation fix to their earlier bill and the House then needs to pass that and the original Senate bill. I have been a strong supporter of single payer or a strong public option. I was incredibly disappointed by the Senate bill. But there are simply too many lives on the line right now to hold out for a perfect bill. The recriminations can come later. What is important is that the bill on the table raises medicaid eligibility to 133% of the poverty level and subsidizes insurance for anyone up to 400% of the poverty line. It's not enough in the long run but it is a vast improvement over the status quo.

There are people, right now as I write this who are delaying getting a lump checked out, or ignoring other potentially life threatening conditions because they can't even pay for a check up. The ugly truth is that in the United States, the first thing we have to think about if we get sick, is money. It's a form of cruelty we inflict on each other by not taking care of this.

This congress may be the last chance for decades that we have to even make the limited step forward that is the Senate bill. Please, call your Senators, and your Representatives and make it clear, that failure on this issue is not acceptable.

(202) 224-3121 House and Senate switchboard.