11 GAYSWEEK September 25, 1978
OPEN LE MOON
UNCLE PAUL'S
8 Christopher Street, near Gay Street Greenwich Village
NOW LEE
APPEARING! HORWIN
What the Primary Election Results Mean for the Gay Commununity
JIM LEVIN
The
he returns from last week's primary election are a mixture of good and bad for the gay community. The most disappointing election was in the 57th Assembly District in Brooklyn where Ginny Apuzzo failed to unseat the incumbent. Harvey Strelzin despite a carefully and capably managed campaign. Apuzzo has given her time and energy to numerous gay organizations in New York. Running as an openly lesbian candidate, she.had the virtually unanimous support of the gay community.
Another gay candidate running for the assembly from the Greenwich Village and Chelsea areas of Manhattan, Robert Rygor, was defeated by incumbent Assemblyman William Passannante. However, while Rygor had been rated "preferred" by the New York Political Action Council, Passanante was endorsed by the Gay Independent Democrats, who felt he was better able to represent the interest of gays.
However, not all of the openly gay candidates were defeated. In an important❘ victory, Christopher Lynn was elected as the delegate to the Democratic National Midterm Convention from the 18th Congressional District.
In this same district, which covers the entire East Side and part of Greenwich Village, Carter Burden won the nomination for House of Representatives. Burden, one of the original sponsors of the gay rights bill in the New York City Council, had the endorsement of the Gay Independent Democrats and was rated "preferred" by NYPAC, as were two of his opponents. Also, on the East Side of Manhattan, Bill Woodward won the nomination to oppose State Senator Roy Goodman in November. Woodward was another GID endorsee who had been rated "preferred" by NYPAC. All three East Siders, Lynn, Burden and Woodward, campaigned heavily in the gay bars of the district and their narrow victories are, to a great extent, the result of gay support.
At least two other congressional races. are of importance to gays. Tom Stokes ran for Congress in the 17th Congressional District as a supporter of a federal gay rights bill against the incumbent John Murphy who opposed it. Stokes was unable to upset the sitting Congressman in a district that includes all of Staten Island as well as lower Manhattan and Greenwich Village.
On a more positive note, in Brooklyn, Congressman Fred Richmond defeated challenger Bernard Gifford, despite a nasty campaign in which Gifford attacked Richmond mainly on the basis of his arrest for soliciting a teen-age black youth. Richmond pleaded guilty at his trial but refused to acknowledge, during the campaign, that he is gay. These denials were necessitated in part because Richmond's suspended sentence is based on provisions which allow first offenders to get professional psychological help. If Richmond admitted his homosexuality was more than a "temporary aberration," he might have been sent to jail. Richmond had received the endorsements of the Gay Independent Democrats and the Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn, but was rated "unacceptable" by NYPAC.
Carter Burden
In some other state senate and assembly and congressional races, friends of the gay community were renominated without primaries. Chief sponsor of the federal gay rights bill in Congress Ted Weiss had no primary in his district on the West Side of Manhattan and the same was true of West Side and Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel. State Assemblymen Gottfried and Nadler from the West Side had no opposition, nor did Mark Alan Siegel on the East Side. Other East Side Assemblymen "Pete" Grannis and Steve Sanders defeated minimal opposition and State Senator Carl McCall, from the Upper West Side, was unopposed. All of these winners are supporters of the gay rights bill.
Furthermore, the gay community can take heart from the results of the two statewide Democratic primaries. Mary Anne Krupsak was clearly the choice of almost every gay community group, certainly of all of those who made public endorsements. Precinct analysis on the West Side of Manhattan shows that the few places where she managed to defeat Governor Carey are precincts with a high percentage of gay voters. Also, Attorney General candidate Robert Abrams, who ran as an independent Democrat with a strong commitment to gay rights, set a statewide record for the largest percentage of votes in a primary against a candidate of conservative persuasion. Although Abrams ran extremely well in almost every area of the state, he ran exceptionally well in heavily gay areas, often doubling the totals received by Governor Carey. These results are encouraging because they show that gay voters are aware of the Governor's failure to keep his promises about issuing a state executive order protecting gay employees from discrimination. If he cannot carry these traditionally Democratic areas in the general election, it will be difficult for him to win the general election.. Furthermore the support of Krupsak and Abrams for gay rights did not damage their vote totals in suburban and upstate areas, which should give heart to other candidates to take a progressive stand for gay civil rights. In short, the votes can be interpreted to mean that a failure to favor gay rights means a loss of gay votes, but support for gay rights does not create a backlash even among conservative straight voters.
There is, however, still too great a proportion of the gay community that is not registered to vote. Several groups will be busy registering voters before the November elections. The more gay voters who cast ballots, the stronger the message we can send to our officials about the need for gay rights legislation.
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