Don’t Be Bought Off By Pigs In A Blanket: Boycott Mayor Adams’ Taxpayer-Funded LGBTQ+ Pride Ceremony
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Allen Roskoff, (917) 553-7180, aroskoff@mac.com
NEW YORK- For over three years, Mayor Adams has demonstrated a consistent pattern of disregard toward the LGBTQ+ community, from homophobic appointments to the continued absence of an Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs. This lack of respect cannot go unanswered. It is time for our community to unite, return the lack of respect that has been shown to our community and make it clear: enough is enough.
We are witnessing a mayor in bed with Donald Trump and his administration. Under Mayor Adams, we have seen troubling alliances and policies that threaten the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers. His silence in the face of attacks on our community--both locally and nationally--signals complicity and emboldens those who wish to roll back our hard-won protections. Our basic civil rights are on the line. Trans heath care and preventive health care for all LGBTQ+ people are being dissolved, which will result in tragedy and deaths. The Trump administration’s intention is to erase us. Additionally, the Supreme Court could do away with our right to marry. Yet not a word of criticism from Eric Adams, who dines with Trump and tells staff not to criticize the president.
Furthermore, we cannot ignore Mayor Adams’ complicity in inhumane immigration policies that have resulted in families being ripped apart, with citizens being sent to concentration camps in Venezuela and talk of similar sites in Libya and Rwanda. The case of Andry Hernandez Romero, a 31-year-old makeup artist sent to a maximum-security facility in El Salvador after seeking U.S. asylum for being persecuted as a gay man, is just one example of the consequences of these policies.
Mayor Adams’ associations with openly homophobic leaders, such as Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, further underscore his disregard for our community. Erdogan says he does not "recognize LGBT" and has vowed to combat "perverse" trends which he said are aimed at destroying the institution of family in the country. He portrays the LGBTQ+ movement as part of a foreign conspiracy aimed at undermining Turkey.
Reports of illegal donations and luxury favors from figures such as Erdogan raise serious ethical concerns and insult the values we hold dear.
Call to Action:
“What if, this year, the trays of pigs in a blanket at Gracie Mansion were left untouched and cold-because we all refused to show up?” said Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club president Allen Roskoff. “We urge the LGBTQ+ community to boycott Mayor Adams' Pride event at Gracie Mansion. Let us send a clear message: symbolic gestures and token celebrations cannot compensate for the ongoing harm and devastation that could await us. Mayor Adams' has put the lives of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, immigrants and all New Yorkers at great risk. History will remember him as a pawn to Donald Trump. Mayor Adams is not our ally. He is our enemy.”
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