s Newark's Mayor frustrated with Obama’s Progress on LGBT Rights Issues
Newark Mayor says he is frustrated with Obama’s Progress on LGBT Rights Issues
Tagged with: Allies Barack Obama Cory Booker LGBT Civil Rights New Jersey Newark Sakia Gunn
8/25/09-by Paula Brooks
Sunday, a rising star in the Democratic Party, Newark, New Jerseys Mayor Cory Booker, criticized the Obama administration’s advancement of LGBT rights issues.
Speaking at a brunch hosted by New York chapter of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association and the New Jersey Devils hockey team, Booker the said he is feeling “frustrated” and “impatient” with the administration’s progress when it comes to Obama’s keeping promises made during the election to the LGBT community.
“I was a huge supporter of Barack Obama and still am, but I think that he needs to take some steps right now, and I think that the more people who are friends of his or associates of him get into his ear about ending ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ about repealing DOMA, about creating more inclusive employment discrimination policy, I think that we as a nation can start moving a lot further forward,” said Booker, “Unless you can change the federal strategy or focus on these issues, New Jersey residents will face high levels of discrimination in my opinion.”
However, said that he has not had any conversations about LGBT issues with “high-level members” of the Administration, “I think the Obama administration is in the middle of some of the most important fights in the history of our country,” said Booker. “They’re eight months into an administration, if that. And I have trouble casting judgment on them feeling a lot of sympathy for what they’re going thorough.”
“But that does not mean that I can’t as a citizen of this country be frustrated, impatient to watch what friends of mine who are gay and lesbian go through on a daily basis. That is such an affront to what we claim to be as a nation, and so having come from a group of Americans that’s been historically discriminated against, there’s no time but now to do certain things,” Booker concluded.
Booker’s city has a troubled history with respect to the LGBT community, that came to a head in 2003 when a 15-year-old African-American lesbian, Sakia Gunn, was stabbed to death after she refused the proposition of two men while waiting for a bus in downtown Newark.
Booker, a co-chairman the Obama campaign in New Jersey last year, has been mayor of Newark since 2006 and in his first term, reached out to the LGTB community and faced harsh criticism from some of his city’s residents because of it.
“Newark has not been, in my opinion, a very enlightened community in the larger sense on LGBTQ issues and I think that there’s been a lot of incidents from recently to going back years that have been very dramatic demonstrations of what folks in Newark understand,” Booker said.
Booker’s administration, the first to fly a pride flag over that city’s administration center, recently established a commission to advise the mayor on LGBT issues. Newark is also working on an after-school program for LGBT youths, and the city’s police director is considering the creation a liaison officer’s position from his department to the Newark LGBT community.
“We’ve made some good progress over the last three years, but I think there’s a lot of work that we have to do and can do,” said Booker. “In a five- to seven-year period I think Newark will have a story to tell around these issues that will be very compelling.”
Tagged with: Allies Barack Obama Cory Booker LGBT Civil Rights New Jersey Newark Sakia Gunn
8/25/09-by Paula Brooks
Sunday, a rising star in the Democratic Party, Newark, New Jerseys Mayor Cory Booker, criticized the Obama administration’s advancement of LGBT rights issues.
Speaking at a brunch hosted by New York chapter of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association and the New Jersey Devils hockey team, Booker the said he is feeling “frustrated” and “impatient” with the administration’s progress when it comes to Obama’s keeping promises made during the election to the LGBT community.
“I was a huge supporter of Barack Obama and still am, but I think that he needs to take some steps right now, and I think that the more people who are friends of his or associates of him get into his ear about ending ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ about repealing DOMA, about creating more inclusive employment discrimination policy, I think that we as a nation can start moving a lot further forward,” said Booker, “Unless you can change the federal strategy or focus on these issues, New Jersey residents will face high levels of discrimination in my opinion.”
However, said that he has not had any conversations about LGBT issues with “high-level members” of the Administration, “I think the Obama administration is in the middle of some of the most important fights in the history of our country,” said Booker. “They’re eight months into an administration, if that. And I have trouble casting judgment on them feeling a lot of sympathy for what they’re going thorough.”
“But that does not mean that I can’t as a citizen of this country be frustrated, impatient to watch what friends of mine who are gay and lesbian go through on a daily basis. That is such an affront to what we claim to be as a nation, and so having come from a group of Americans that’s been historically discriminated against, there’s no time but now to do certain things,” Booker concluded.
Booker’s city has a troubled history with respect to the LGBT community, that came to a head in 2003 when a 15-year-old African-American lesbian, Sakia Gunn, was stabbed to death after she refused the proposition of two men while waiting for a bus in downtown Newark.
Booker, a co-chairman the Obama campaign in New Jersey last year, has been mayor of Newark since 2006 and in his first term, reached out to the LGTB community and faced harsh criticism from some of his city’s residents because of it.
“Newark has not been, in my opinion, a very enlightened community in the larger sense on LGBTQ issues and I think that there’s been a lot of incidents from recently to going back years that have been very dramatic demonstrations of what folks in Newark understand,” Booker said.
Booker’s administration, the first to fly a pride flag over that city’s administration center, recently established a commission to advise the mayor on LGBT issues. Newark is also working on an after-school program for LGBT youths, and the city’s police director is considering the creation a liaison officer’s position from his department to the Newark LGBT community.
“We’ve made some good progress over the last three years, but I think there’s a lot of work that we have to do and can do,” said Booker. “In a five- to seven-year period I think Newark will have a story to tell around these issues that will be very compelling.”
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