Lesbian To Head NYC Council!!!

You probably don't have to live in the NY Metropolitan Area to be sick of hearing about the new lesbian speaker of the New York City Council, but I can assure you that I am. Even before the New Year, local public radio station WNYC was breathlessly informing us of the exciting possibility that the next speaker of the city council could be not just the first woman but the first "openly gay or lesbian" one. I personally found this to be as startling as the Yankees announcing, say, that there next equipment manager would be the first Hispanic equipment manager in their history. But over the next few days even the intrusion of actual news didn't seem to dampen the enthusiasm of our local news media. Even the fact that the Speaker's position has only been around since 1989 and that there's only been two speakers since did nothing to constrain the trumpeting of her "first" status. So it's been Christine Quinn week here in the NY region.

The New York Times assures us that "as an openly gay woman, she could become a trailblazer for other gay politicians" because, presumably, being gay is such a terrible handicap in New York.

"This has extraordinary significance in its own right: Chris will be the second most powerful person in the largest city in America," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "In terms of raw political power, the size of the city budget and the Council's powers, she will become the most powerful openly lesbian or gay official in the country."

And that means...what? She's going to apply lesbian accounting standards to budget management? New York is already about as pro-homosexual as a city can be - what more can she do? She gained the spotlight in 2004 opposing the building of a new west-side stadium for the Jets, a position which made sense given the presumed lack of interest in the NFL found in her district (Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Clinton, parts of SoHo and Murray Hill). Her ascendancy is clearly due to her being one tough politician.

"She's a person who's not afraid to stand up for what she believes in," said George Arzt, who has known Ms. Quinn for more than a decade. Mr. Arzt was press secretary for Mayor Edward I. Koch. "But she tries to sit down and reason with you. If not, she will go her own way."

In a more insensitive era, cruder voices might have simply characterized her as a "pushy broad." The Times attempts to paint her as a lesbian Henry Clay: As chairwoman of the Health Committee, she has sponsored legislation to provide health care benefits to domestic partners and grocery workers over the objections of Mr. Bloomberg. But she also provided support for his ban on smoking in most restaurants and bars. Gee, what a sport; it must have killed her to give in on that smoking ban.

My fear now is that this hype will never fully dissipate. All year long we will be reminded of Ms. Quinn's trailblazing achievement, the role-model she provides other Openly Gay or LEsbian (OGLE) politicians. Each and every controversy, from police brutality to garbage pickup, will require that we consider that the speaker of the city council is the most powerful lesbian politician in the country. If Salt Lake City elects a lesbian, then let's by all means recognize it as big news, but in New York City there ought to be a little higher bar for defining something as a major news event.