Adams won’t pull city money from 'discriminatory' parade
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is quick to paint his city on the national stage as a sanctuary from hate against “our LGBTQ+ neighbors,” a key point of contrast to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose restrictions around race and gender have drawn the gay community’s ire.
“I don't think that we should do anything that is harmful to those who are members of the LGBTQ+ community,” Adams said Wednesday on WABC’s “Sid and Friends in the Morning."
ButAdams frayed relations with some members of the LGBTQ community in the early days of his administration. And now he's frustrating those who are calling on him to back a local community board request to take away services like police and fire department protection from the Staten Island St. Patrick’s Parade — which has a long anti-LGBTQ history — next month in the city's Republican stronghold. The measure, Adams said this week, “makes no sense."
The controversy pits two of Adams’ stated priorities — public safety and supporting the LGBTQ community — against each other. And Adams’ choice to keep sending city resources to the parade is exasperating — but not surprising — to some LGBTQ advocates like Allen Roskoff, who had been attempting to mend fences with the mayor despite Adams’ defense of a number of anti-gay hires in City Hall.
Roskoff called on Adams to honor the community board’s request. “The solution stares him in the face,” he told Playbook. “The LGBTQ community must be respected.”
New York City doles out about $300,000 annually for municipal services supporting the parade, per a financial breakdown provided to the Staten Island Advance by city Comptroller Brad Lander. For years, the Pride Center of Staten Island and the Gay Officers Action League have tried to participate, but the parade organizers have repeatedly denied their requests, citing Catholic teachings. Even City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli was banned from marching in the parade in 2020 just for wearing a rainbow flag pin on his lapel.
The parade's continued exclusion is "shocking," said Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, in a statement to Playbook.
“Local LGBTQ organizers like us welcome a conversation with Mayor Adams about ways he can support LGBTQ people in all five boroughs against discriminatory behavior like this and how his predecessor helped overturn the outdated and harmful ban on LGBTQ families in the Manhattan parade,” she said.
Adams has held his stance as part of his mayoral duty to ensure the city manages the event and its aftermath, despite his feelings about its organization, he said. He is not personally marching, he noted to reporters this week.
“I’m not going to allow my belief in how the parade is not inclusive enough to get in the way,” he said. “My role as the mayor is to make sure large gatherings are receiving the proper police protection, that after parades, things are cleaned up, because there are residents that live in that community and it's the right thing to do. And I'm not going to mix the two.” — Zachary Schermele