A Cambridge University college has threatened students with eviction if they do not remove LGBT flags and political posters from their windows.
Jesus College emailed students earlier this week asking them to remove all posters, flags or banners displayed inside or outside college accommodation. This includes rainbow “Pride” flags left hanging outside college properties in the wake of LGBT+ History Month in March.
College dons warned students their accommodation licence could be terminated if they did not obey the rules.
“As you are aware, it is a breach of the terms of your licence agreement to display any poster, flag, or banner internally or externally from the property,” the email said.
“I must ask you to please remove this item by Thursday, 22 April. The college will take further action if you fail to put right the breach, which could ultimately result in the licence agreement being terminated.”
Aurelio Petrucci, a former president of the Jesus College Students’ Union, criticised the move and questioned its legality.
The college told students that the flag, a symbol of tolerance around the world, breached their licence agreements
Credit: REUTERS
He urged the college to apologise, saying: “Forcing students to remove posters which criticise the college on pain of eviction is truly awful.
“By threatening to evict students for exercising their basic right to self-expression, all this will do is add to the stress and anxiety students are already feeling about the pandemic and their exams,” he added.
“Being able to criticise institutions, express one’s identity and political beliefs are the core features of British academia.
“[This is] now being trampled by coercion and threats of homelessness/eviction by a Cambridge college.
“The college needs to reconsider this immediately, and apologise.
“I can only hope that they start to listen to the student union and stop trying to curtail our right to free speech and free expression of our identities.”
Founded in 1496, Jesus College is one of Cambridge’s wealthiest colleges. Its alumni include Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poet.
Jesus College said they have already contacted students about this issue twice during last month and are contacting “the few students who have not yet followed our request….to remind them of their license agreement terms”. A spokesman for the college said the rules on displaying any flags, banners or posters are “a long-standing clause in our license agreement”.
He added: “We encourage all community members to express themselves and their views, as long as it doesn’t break their license agreement or the law. We have asked that everyone living in college accommodation abides by the agreement they signed.
“We have informed students that we will run an in-depth consultation this term with students, fellows and staff about the most inventive and creative ways to enable this in college for the benefit of the whole community.”
Inspired by a desire to better address the needs of current students, the University will launch a new center for gender and sexuality this fall.
Dean for Diversity and Inclusion in the Office of the Vice President for Campus Life LaTanya Buck said that the new center will help “carry out our mission to eliminate discrimination and injustice at Princeton based on sex, gender and sexual identity,” according to the University’s press release.
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The Women*s Center and LGBT Center will continue to operate separately, but the new center for gender and sexuality will help bridge their staff and services while acknowledging the intersections of gender and sexuality.
The Women*s Center first opened in 1971 and the first official LGBT Center opened in 2005. Some of their features will remain in place under the new center, such as affinity graduation ceremonies, individual and group-based support for students, and peer education, but some programming might look different.
“This new model will allow us to be more inclusive and expansive in our programs, practices, and services to students from all identities along the spectrums of gender and sexuality,” wrote Buck in a statement to The Daily Princetonian.
Buck expressed hope that the center’s programming will be more intersectional than current programming and that the curricula will be more targeted to student feedback.
Ideas for the center came from a yearlong review process that engaged several members of the University community. In order to gather more ideas for the new center — including its name — faculty and staff are holding small group listening sessions with current students.
Mollika Singh ’24, an LGBTQIA+ Peer Educator with the LGBT Center, attended one such session on Wednesday, April 21, with one other first-year student. During the meeting, a staff member asked what the two students wanted to see from the new center to make it more inclusive and what their thoughts were on expanding its reach to graduate students, faculty, and staff.
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Singh is the ‘Prince’ Editorial Board Chairperson.
Singh agreed that more inclusive programming from the new center might be beneficial in welcoming more people who are not secure in their identity.
“I feel like it might help to acknowledge that a lot of our conversations overlap and that gender and sexuality are really unable to be anything but intertwined,” she said.
The Women*s Space and Rainbow Lounge — the affinity space for the LGBT Center — will both continue to operate as distinct spaces in Frist Campus Center in order to maintain affinity spaces but there will be a rebranding of the spaces, according to Buck.
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“I hope merging the spaces makes it easier for people who are unsure if they belong in those spaces to test them out,” Singh said.
Singh also expressed hope that with the new center, more students will have access to the community she has found with other peer educators.
“I would like for [student leaders] affiliated with the new center to be explicitly resources for other students,” she said.
Another stated goal of the new center is to interact more with the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies.
“There is an opportunity for us to continue to explore gender and sexuality through a critical and intersectional lens, engage GSS students’ and scholars’ research, and partner on co-curricular experiences like programming and mentorship,” Buck said in the University’s statement.
Singh is not sure, though, that the rebranding through the new center is entirely necessary.
“I think the main benefit and thing now is that at least they’re considering changes in programming to what is currently offered,” Singh said. “I’m not sure that the actual name change or nominal merging matters as much.”
In Singh’s view, one benefit of the new center will be the addition of staff members. The new center will be funded by the Office of Campus Life and will be run by an assistant director and two program coordinators. The Women*s and LGBT Center each currently have one program coordinator.
The University also recently created a position for an assistant dean for diversity and inclusion/director who will oversee the new center by monitoring operations, leading the center’s strategic initiatives, and creating a positive environment for women and LGBTQIA+ communities on campus.
“[The assistant dean] will serve as an institutional resource about women/femme issues, issues of gender and gender equality, gender identities, LGBTQIA+ issues, and diverse sexual orientations,” Buck wrote in her email to the ‘Prince.’
More information on the new center will be coming in the next few months after staff have conducted listening sessions to hear what current students want from the program.
Having hated sport as a youngster, Sam Winton fell in love with rowing at university and later created Here For Sport to encourage LGBTQ+ people and others from under-represented groups to get involved. He explains the ethos behind the social enterprise and why its new Kickstarter campaign ‘Clothes for Inclusivity’ needs your support…
What’s worse, the problem is concentrated in specific demographics which only serves to perpetuate inequality.
Simultaneously, news articles abound on the ‘obesity crisis’. It’s undeniable that there’s a problem.
I set up Here For Sport to provide a solution – one based on my own previous hatred of sport, taking a different approach to that traditionally taken by sports charities.
It always comes as a shock to people when I confess that I hated sport for many years. I’m currently a performance athlete at the University of St Andrews, a member of the student sport team, and the youngest director at Scottish Rowing. I often joke that my degree is in rowing, not economics!
Yet this love of sport – or perhaps more accurately, obsession – only began recently.
Throughout my childhood, I was surrounded by sport but I loathed being dragged along to watch the football every week, bribed with the promise of Mars bars for good behaviour. I hated the cold, the damp, and the game itself. Within school, I dreaded P.E. I would sit down diligently in a remote corner of the field avoiding the actually talented sports people, attempting to read a new book. I would often tune out at family gatherings when the conversation turned to cricket, or rugby, or in fact any sport at all. Sport didn’t feel like a place where I belonged. That is, until I turned up to university.
In 2018, I was accepted into the University of St Andrews to study Economics. I intended to complete my degree and then go into a career in finance, likely earning a ridiculous amount of money but working myself to death. However, whilst doing my degree, I wanted to enjoy every aspect of university life and get involved with as many things as possible. Like Jim Carrey in the movie, I became ‘Yes Man’ – I ended up at the uni sports fair signing up to all manner of sports, such as quidditch, archery, rifling and rowing. Thanks to this outlook, I eventually found my personal sporting passion and gained a new-found appreciation and respect for sport.
I acknowledge that I was in a very privileged position and this is something I’m very grateful for. It was this awareness that then made me want to help create change – giving everyone the chance to enjoy sport.
Previously, the only sport I’d ever shown any promise in was hockey. My friends had played it growing up so I’d joined in. I enjoyed being with them and I liked winning, on the rare occasion that happened. Yet it still wasn’t my passion.
I’d intended to try out for the University Hockey Club but I was turned away for not being fit enough. I was told I was too fat and that I probably wouldn’t fit in. This wasn’t the first time I’d experienced something like this. P.E teachers were quick to give up on me due to my lack of hand-eye coordination and general talent. My lack of enthusiasm didn’t help.
However, one teacher did invest their time in me – a man named Mr Eveleigh. It was through his encouragement that I joined hockey at school in the first place.
Reeling from the experience of being rejected by uni hockey at the sports fair, I found myself wandering around. Eventually, I bumped into my ambassador from my open day. I got chatting to her and she encouraged me to take up rowing. I was reluctant thanks to the reputation of the sport but I quickly gave in, thanks to her and the women’s captain’s encouragement.
I’m very glad I did. The first session was like some form of torture, demonstrating to me that perhaps the hockey club had been right and that I wasn’t fit enough. Nevertheless, the rowing club encouraged me and continued to push me on, so I kept going back. Soon, I was hooked.
Coming home that Christmas, my family were quick to notice the change in me. Not only was I fitter and healthier but I was also happier. I bored them all with the details of my training and for once, the shoe was on the other foot as they quickly tuned out. In all honesty, they lasted longer than I ever did, back when I had zero interest in sport. It wasn’t until my mum pointed out that she had actually recommended rowing when I was younger that I stopped to reflect on this sudden change in outlook.
We began to discuss why I had turned down rowing so long ago, essentially depriving myself of an opportunity. Part of the reason was financial – raised by a single mum, it was unlikely we’d have been able to afford the fees. Another was purely logistical, as it was hard to get to the boathouse as well as balance all my other commitments. Then there was my perception of the sport itself. I’d always thought of rowing as a posh person’s sport, for ‘manly’ men. As a state-educated gay boy, I just didn’t feel like I’d fit in. This fear of rejection and exclusion was probably the biggest reason I’d turned it down. This planted a seed in me and I started to do research into the barriers to participation.
‘A three-dimensional vision of LGBTQ+ people in sport’
It quickly emerged that there were some general themes, all mapping onto my own experience. I began talking to other people who had only taken up sport at university, or who had switched to a new sport and found they encountered similar barriers to participation. We all felt grateful and lucky to have had the opportunity to enjoy sport and develop a passion but it was frustrating that we couldn’t have done this earlier.
Instead of continuing to regret these circumstances, I looked at how I could make a difference. I began volunteering as a rowing coach in local schools. I also tried to find a charity where I could help out. Yet all of the organisations I looked at just focused on educating people on the benefits of sport, or delivering sport to under-represented groups. This didn’t make sense to me as it wasn’t tackling the root cause. With the support of friends and family, I set up Here For Sport to do just that – identify the specific problems and work to fix them.
As mentioned, I’ve never been particularly financially well off. I knew that for any charity to be effective, it would have to generate a stable source of income on its own as I did not have the resources to invest in it. This business activity would also have to help advance the mission of the charity – to break down barriers to participation. After observing the success of the ‘Rowing for Healthy Minds’ campaign, I saw an opportunity for a form of activism that would tackle the social and psychological barriers, whilst simultaneously generating revenue to help tackle economic and logistical barriers.
This was sportswear with a message. Working with the masterminds behind that ‘Rowing for Healthy Minds’ campaign, RivalKit, we designed a new range of clothing and accessories. It was backed by academic research into fashion activism, signalling, psychology, and identity theory.
With this, we launched the ‘Classic Range’ and became a kit partner for the University of St Andrews. We worked closely with clubs and continued to grow, holding fundraising events and attending fashion shows across Scotland, spreading our message.
Meanwhile, I continued to do more research into specific barriers faced by under-represented groups. It was clear that we would have to target the LGBTQ+ community, as well as ethnic minorities and women. All of these demographics have faced marginalisation in sport and continue to face a unique set of barriers on top of the more traditional ones.
As a member of the LGBTQ+ community myself, I was perhaps more aware of the homophobia and discrimination within sport than most and I resolved to start there. I worked with the London Otters, an LGBTQ+ rowing club, to learn more, as well as other LGBTQ+ sportspeople to compile my findings. Often the community is portrayed in a one-dimensional light which does little to speak to their personal experiences. I resolved to create a positive three-dimensional image and use a new sportswear range to promote this – thus, the ‘LGBTQ+ Range’ was created.
This brings us to the start of the global pandemic and in keeping with the times, we hosted an online Zoom webinar on the LGBTQ+ experience within all levels of rowing.
We simultaneously began campaigning for the creation of a boat club in my home city of Coventry, working with schools in the area to expose more children to the sport and challenge their perception of the sport as ‘white and posh’. I also began talking to Fulham Reach Boat Club, who had experienced remarkable success doing something similar in London.
I was also working closely with national governing bodies and funding agencies to stress this more holistic and solution-focused approach to the problem of inactivity. It was a particular highlight to talk to Dame Katherine Grainger, who is not only a sporting icon and a personal inspiration as an ex-novice rower turned Olympic gold-medal winner but also a leader within the sports community through being chair of UK Sport.
I was also invited to talk at Loughborough University’s Institute of Sport on the topic of Sport Business and Innovation, sharing my research findings and experience with many of the postgraduate students there.
After almost two years of hard work, it felt like people were listening. We had begun to attract the attention of some local press in Fife, and I also got to do an interview with Pride of the Terraces, which I thoroughly enjoyed. You may have gathered by now that I like to communicate, whether talking or through the written word!
We are now fighting to keep up this momentum. My biggest worry is that as discussions around the post-pandemic recovery abound, we’ll slip into old habits. More and more people are paying attention to our approach, but that doesn’t guarantee that this will manifest itself into tangible action.
What we’re asking national governing bodies and funding agencies to do is hard and often risky – we want them to forgo the usual tick-box exercises and their obsession over numbers and instead study the intangible measures of attitudes and social climate.
We’re asking them to embrace what could be considered an indirect method, one which is not clearly correlated to increased participation. Here For Sport has shown the power of creative advocacy, of embracing an interdisciplinary approach, but we are just one organisation and group. Worst of all, we are student-led, assumed to be radical social justice warriors with little know-how and experience. We are an unknown variable that may just be a fluke. I’ve been told many times “you have no proof” or “you’re doing too much”. My ‘favourite’ line was “we can’t trust a student, you’ll just give up soon”.
It’s been a tough time due to COVID – but we’re still fighting.
‘Crowdfunder will help us make change happen’
In order to show the importance of our mission, to get people listening and talking, we’re reaching out to all the people we’ve met and who helped get us here today. With their help and guidance, we have started ‘Clothes for Inclusivity’ – a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to relaunch the brand, setting ourselves up as a professional and trustworthy organisation that can lead change.
We want to ensure that sport is not only a critical component of the post-pandemic recovery, but that we embrace the principles of representation and equality, not just in name but in actions. To do this, we need all the help we can get.
As I’ve written this blog, I’m struck with an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Here For Sport has grown so much and whilst its impact may not be known yet, I can say it’s shaped and impacted so many lives, not least of all my own. If you had told me in 2018 that I wouldn’t be frantically applying to work in an investment bank but instead setting up a sports charity, I would have laughed. If you’d told me that I was even involved in sport, I probably would have scoffed at the suggestion.
As you’ve read this, you may have done the same, laughing at the lofty aims and idealism of some student. However, if the last year has taught me anything, change can happen – and it can happen fast.
Sports Media LGBT+ is a network, advocacy, and consultancy group that is helping to build a community of LGBT+ people and allies in sport. We’re also a digital publisher. Learn more about us here.
LGBT+ in sports? Your story could help to inspire other people – you don’t have to be famous to make an impact, and there are huge gains to be made both personally and more widely in sport. Start a conversation with us, in confidence, and we’ll give you the best advice on navigating this part of your journey.
WTVF-NASHVILLE —Following a string of legislation being proposed in the TN legislature that target the LGBT community, Joe Woolley, CEO of the LGBT Chamber of Commerce joins Ben Hall to discuss the ramifications of such bills on the states future economy.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg released a video Thursday denouncing world leaders for the “hypothetical targets” announced at President Biden’s virtual climate summit this week.Why it matters: The virtual summit came hours before Thunberg urged U.S. lawmakers “to listen to and act on the science” in testimony before a House Oversight Committee panel. Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.”These targets could be a great start,” Thunberg said in the four-minute-long clip, “if it wasn’t for the fact that they’re full of gaps and loopholes.” Thunberg lambasted the leaders for “leaving out emissions from consumption of imported goods, as well as international aviation, shipping and the burning of biomass; using baseline manipulation; excluding most tipping points and feedback loops; and ignoring global aspects of equity and historic emissions.””They will call these hypothetical targets ambitious. But when you compare our insufficient targets with the overall current best available science, you clearly see that there’s a gap. There are decades missing.” The Swedish activist said the goals are “reliant on future, fantasy-scaled, currently barely-existing negative emissions technologies.” State of play: Biden announced on Thursday the U.S. would seek to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50%-52% by 2030 relative to 2005 levels — about twice as ambitious as a goal set during the Obama administration. Leaders in Brazil, Canada and Japan also announced new targets at the summit. The bottom line: “The point … is that we can keep cheating in order to pretend that these targets are in line with what is needed,” Thunberg said. “But while we can others and even ourselves, we cannot fool nature and physics.” “The emissions are still there, whether we choose to count them or not.” Go deeper: All the new emissions targets announced at Biden’s climate summitMore from Axios: Sign up to get the latest market trends with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free
Russian Defense MinistryFor weeks, Russia has been inflaming tensions in Eastern Europe by building up a mighty force of some 100,000 troops on the Ukraine border. On Thursday, the Kremlin announced it had achieved what it wanted with the exercise, and ordered its army to pack up and go home.According to BBC News, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made the announcement during a visit to Crimea, which was seized and annexed by Russia in the last major conflict in the region seven years ago. Shoigu said the plan of military “snap checks” had been achieved, and there’s nothing left for the tens of thousands of troops to do but to head back.“The troops have demonstrated their ability to provide a credible defense for the country,” said the minister, who added that some soldiers will be ordered to return to their “permanent bases” in Russia on Friday, and the entire operation will be completed in just over a week, on May 1.Сегодня на полигоне «Опук» (Республика Крым) пройдет основной этап учений войск Южного военного округа и Воздушно-десантных войск, которые проводились в рамках внезапной проверки боеготовности https://t.co/8ltXgN2IKC#Учения #ЮВО #ВДВ #Крым pic.twitter.com/VnS6KuKFWH— Минобороны России (@mod_russia) April 22, 2021 Shoigu’s announcement came immediately after Russia staged massive military exercises in Crimea on Thursday to underline a show of force on the Ukraine border that has put Kyiv and its Western allies on high alert for weeks. The defense ministry claimed the exercises involved 60 ships, over 10,000 troops, 200 aircraft, and over 1,000 military vehicles.Shoigu oversaw the operation in a helicopter, and after his stand-down order he said the military had proven its readiness to respond to any “adverse developments” during NATO’s Defender Europe 2021 exercise—a mass U.S. Army-led war game that’s running in Europe until June.The troop buildup caused panic in Ukraine—and, even though the withdrawal will be met with relief—Russia has displayed that it could raise a major force at the border if required. Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told The Wall Street Journal this week: “We don’t know whether Putin will decide to attack, but he will certainly be ready to do so.”Last week, during a call between President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, the White House said Biden had “emphasized the United States’ unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” On Thursday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged Western allies to punish Moscow’s threatening behavior with new sanctions.Later, after the withdrawal announcement, Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko said: “We are monitoring the situation.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Dan Innis, a Republican former state senator and longtime activist in the LGBTQ community, says it’s well past time that his party formally recognizes gay marriage on an equal footing with marriage between a man and a woman.Innis, a Lee resident, was elected chair of the New Hampshire Log Cabin Republican on Thursday, succeeding Jim Morgan of Derry, who will remain a member of the board of directors.Innis is a professor at the University of New Hampshire’s Department of Hospitality Management and the former dean of the UNH Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. In 2014, he ran for the 1st District U.S. House seat, losing in a Republican primary to former U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta. He was elected to the state Senate in 2016 but was defeated two years later by the current senator, Democrat Tom Sherman. In an interview, Innis said the group under his leadership will continue its efforts to bring LGBT Granite Staters into the GOP. And the party platform change will help that effort, he said.Morgan, as chair, was a strong proponent of a move to have the state Republican Party drop from its platform its recognition of marriage as only being between one man and one woman.Morgan planned to propose a platform amendment to that effect at last year’s state party convention, but the proposal — and all proposed platform amendments — were put on hold when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the party to hold a virtual convention, rather than in-person.Innis, who is a member of the national Log Cabin Republicans board of directors, said he intends to continue in his new role to push for the change not only in the state GOP platform, but in the national party platform as well.Rather than proposing a platform amendment to proactively say that the party recognizes gay marriage, Innis, like Morgan, wants to drop the reference to marriage entirely.“That’s just the best way to go about it,” Innis said. “It’s time, and I think more Republicans are on board with that than ever before.”“That is the big one for us,” Innis said. “All we’re asking is that the relationships and partnerships and marriages we develop and are engaged in should be treated equally.”The state Democratic Party has specifically recognized marriage equality in its platform since 2010 and previously more generally called for the legal recognition of all marriages, a party spokesperson said.Innis said his advocacy for the change will come as he more broadly continues to work to attract LGBTQ Granite Staters to the Republican Party. He said the broad majority of Republicans are supportive of members of that community.“Certainly, things are a lot different than a decade ago,” Innis said. “We have made a lot of progress in the Republican Party.“We saw a record number of LGBT voters come over to the party, and our job is to build on that by helping our community understand that the values and principles of freedom and liberty that we espouse are really terrific for our community.“With liberty comes equality, and that’s what we’re all about,” Innis said.“We have hundreds of members in the state, and our objective is to grow our numbers.”Endorsements in party primaries Innis also said that the national and state Log Cabin Republicans will take a more active role in shaping the party’s national and state tickets in the 2022 midterm elections. He said that for the first time, the national Log Cabin Republicans board of directors will make endorsements in primary races across the country.“We will follow along with that,” Innis said. “We anticipate that in the midterm election, we will provide support for candidates who reflect our conservative principles and the principles of equality for everyone. We are going to play in primaries in New Hampshire.” Innis said he has seen “tremendous improvement in the way the LGBT community is treated in the party. “We have many LGBT people in the Republican Party in New Hampshire. We’ve made a lot of progress.”And, Innis said, the Democratic Party has monopoly on LGBT voters. “The Democratic Party is based on the politics of division,” Innis said. “They take the LGBT community for granted. And I believe they are concerned that we’ve made so much progress and that the voters are starting to see that the Republican Party in New Hampshire is open to the LGBT community. “Folks understand that you can be gay and conservative, and I don’t think that was the case 10 years ago.”
MANCHESTER, N.H. —
Dan Innis, a Republican former state senator and longtime activist in the LGBTQ community, says it’s well past time that his party formally recognizes gay marriage on an equal footing with marriage between a man and a woman.
Innis, a Lee resident, was elected chair of the New Hampshire Log Cabin Republican on Thursday, succeeding Jim Morgan of Derry, who will remain a member of the board of directors.
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Innis is a professor at the University of New Hampshire’s Department of Hospitality Management and the former dean of the UNH Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics.
In 2014, he ran for the 1st District U.S. House seat, losing in a Republican primary to former U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta. He was elected to the state Senate in 2016 but was defeated two years later by the current senator, Democrat Tom Sherman.
In an interview, Innis said the group under his leadership will continue its efforts to bring LGBT Granite Staters into the GOP. And the party platform change will help that effort, he said.
Morgan, as chair, was a strong proponent of a move to have the state Republican Party drop from its platform its recognition of marriage as only being between one man and one woman.
Morgan planned to propose a platform amendment to that effect at last year’s state party convention, but the proposal — and all proposed platform amendments — were put on hold when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the party to hold a virtual convention, rather than in-person.
Innis, who is a member of the national Log Cabin Republicans board of directors, said he intends to continue in his new role to push for the change not only in the state GOP platform, but in the national party platform as well.
Rather than proposing a platform amendment to proactively say that the party recognizes gay marriage, Innis, like Morgan, wants to drop the reference to marriage entirely.
“That’s just the best way to go about it,” Innis said. “It’s time, and I think more Republicans are on board with that than ever before.”
“That is the big one for us,” Innis said. “All we’re asking is that the relationships and partnerships and marriages we develop and are engaged in should be treated equally.”
The state Democratic Party has specifically recognized marriage equality in its platform since 2010 and previously more generally called for the legal recognition of all marriages, a party spokesperson said.
Innis said his advocacy for the change will come as he more broadly continues to work to attract LGBTQ Granite Staters to the Republican Party. He said the broad majority of Republicans are supportive of members of that community.
“Certainly, things are a lot different than a decade ago,” Innis said. “We have made a lot of progress in the Republican Party.
“We saw a record number of LGBT voters come over to the party, and our job is to build on that by helping our community understand that the values and principles of freedom and liberty that we espouse are really terrific for our community.
“With liberty comes equality, and that’s what we’re all about,” Innis said.
“We have hundreds of members in the state, and our objective is to grow our numbers.”
Endorsements in party primaries
Innis also said that the national and state Log Cabin Republicans will take a more active role in shaping the party’s national and state tickets in the 2022 midterm elections. He said that for the first time, the national Log Cabin Republicans board of directors will make endorsements in primary races across the country.
“We will follow along with that,” Innis said. “We anticipate that in the midterm election, we will provide support for candidates who reflect our conservative principles and the principles of equality for everyone. We are going to play in primaries in New Hampshire.”
Innis said he has seen “tremendous improvement in the way the LGBT community is treated in the party.
“We have many LGBT people in the Republican Party in New Hampshire. We’ve made a lot of progress.”
And, Innis said, the Democratic Party has monopoly on LGBT voters.
“The Democratic Party is based on the politics of division,” Innis said. “They take the LGBT community for granted. And I believe they are concerned that we’ve made so much progress and that the voters are starting to see that the Republican Party in New Hampshire is open to the LGBT community.
“Folks understand that you can be gay and conservative, and I don’t think that was the case 10 years ago.”
Happiest Seasonstar Aubrey Plaza was once told that a gay rom-com would be “confusing” for audiences.
During an interview with The Independent, the actress reflected on the film industry’s ignorance towards LGBTQ+ relationships and how her experiences have left her feeling pretty appalled by it all.
“A movie like this should have come out so long ago,” she said of 2020’s Happiest Season, which also starred Kristen Stewart and followed a young woman planning to propose to her girlfriend while at her family’s annual holiday party only to discover her partner hasn’t yet come out to her conservative parents.
“Not to toot my own horn but I was calling my agency years ago and going, ‘You know, what you should do is take a rom-com script and just… make it two women. Don’t make it about them being gay or coming out or anything, just a love story with two women.'”
Revealing the response, Plaza added: “It was ridiculous. It was, ‘Haha, arghhh, I don’t know!’ Literally someone said to me, ‘Well, imagine the poster and how confusing it would be for people.’ And I would be like, ‘Are you out of your f**King mind?’
“Can you believe? It’s wild. It is wild how completely ignorant this industry has been.”
The 36-year-old went on to discuss how fans ended up rooting for her character Riley to get with Kristen Stewart’s Abby.
“When Clea [DuVall, director] asked me to do the film, I remember saying to her, ‘Look, if I do this, I am going to come for Abby. I’m coming for her. The audience is gonna want me to be with her at the end, and that’s what I’m gonna want. So just as long as you know that…’ And she was kind of like, ‘Yeah yeah yeah.’
“But then I couldn’t believe the response when it was over. I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s exactly what I said, but… crazier.'”
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Happiest Season star Aubrey Plaza was once told that a gay rom-com would be “confusing” for audiences.
During an interview with The Independent, the actress reflected on the film industry’s ignorance towards LGBTQ+ relationships and how her experiences have left her feeling pretty appalled by it all.
“A movie like this should have come out so long ago,” she said of 2020’s Happiest Season, which also starred Kristen Stewart and followed a young woman planning to propose to her girlfriend while at her family’s annual holiday party only to discover her partner hasn’t yet come out to her conservative parents.
“Not to toot my own horn but I was calling my agency years ago and going, ‘You know, what you should do is take a rom-com script and just… make it two women. Don’t make it about them being gay or coming out or anything, just a love story with two women.'”
Revealing the response, Plaza added: “It was ridiculous. It was, ‘Haha, arghhh, I don’t know!’ Literally someone said to me, ‘Well, imagine the poster and how confusing it would be for people.’ And I would be like, ‘Are you out of your f**King mind?’
“Can you believe? It’s wild. It is wild how completely ignorant this industry has been.”
The 36-year-old went on to discuss how fans ended up rooting for her character Riley to get with Kristen Stewart’s Abby.
“When Clea [DuVall, director] asked me to do the film, I remember saying to her, ‘Look, if I do this, I am going to come for Abby. I’m coming for her. The audience is gonna want me to be with her at the end, and that’s what I’m gonna want. So just as long as you know that…’ And she was kind of like, ‘Yeah yeah yeah.’
“But then I couldn’t believe the response when it was over. I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s exactly what I said, but… crazier.'”
Interested in Digital Spy’s weekly newsletter? Sign up to get it sent straight to your inbox – and don’t forget to join our Watch This Facebook Group for daily TV recommendations and discussions with other readers.
Happiest Season star Aubrey Plaza was once told that a gay rom-com would be “confusing” for audiences.
During an interview with The Independent, the actress reflected on the film industry’s ignorance towards LGBTQ+ relationships and how her experiences have left her feeling pretty appalled by it all.
“A movie like this should have come out so long ago,” she said of 2020’s Happiest Season, which also starred Kristen Stewart and followed a young woman planning to propose to her girlfriend while at her family’s annual holiday party only to discover her partner hasn’t yet come out to her conservative parents.
“Not to toot my own horn but I was calling my agency years ago and going, ‘You know, what you should do is take a rom-com script and just… make it two women. Don’t make it about them being gay or coming out or anything, just a love story with two women.'”
Revealing the response, Plaza added: “It was ridiculous. It was, ‘Haha, arghhh, I don’t know!’ Literally someone said to me, ‘Well, imagine the poster and how confusing it would be for people.’ And I would be like, ‘Are you out of your f**King mind?’
“Can you believe? It’s wild. It is wild how completely ignorant this industry has been.”
The 36-year-old went on to discuss how fans ended up rooting for her character Riley to get with Kristen Stewart’s Abby.
“When Clea [DuVall, director] asked me to do the film, I remember saying to her, ‘Look, if I do this, I am going to come for Abby. I’m coming for her. The audience is gonna want me to be with her at the end, and that’s what I’m gonna want. So just as long as you know that…’ And she was kind of like, ‘Yeah yeah yeah.’
“But then I couldn’t believe the response when it was over. I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s exactly what I said, but… crazier.'”
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Get ready to add more fuel to your homoerotic Harry Styles fantasies because it sounds like they’re about to get a whole lot more vivid.
The singer and burgeoning actor is currently set to star in the new Michael Grandage-directed adaptation of Bethan Roberts’ novel, My Policeman, about a British cop, Tom Burgess, in 1950s England caught between male lover, Patrick played by Dean Dawson, and his wife, Marion played byThe Crown’s Emma Corrin, who attempts to get said lover arrested as homosexuality was illegal at the time.
Filming has only just begun in Brighton so there aren’t too many details or meme-worthy photo ops yet but according to The Sun what we do know is that Styles will be having some steamy gay sex and showing plenty of skin on screen. An inside source tells the publication that Styles “will be having sex on screen and they want it to look as real as possible.”
The source goes on to say that viewers will be getting at least two sex scenes and another where Styles is fully nude that apparently don’t leave much the imagination. Styles is supposedly excited to be tackle the acting challenge as well, with the source adding, “he always wants to do things that people wouldn’t expect and challenge what people think about him — and this film will really do that.”
Styles has historically declined to put a label on his own sexuality in interviews and in recent years the Gucci ambassador has become more adventurous in defying masculine fashion norms which has lead many to speculate that former One Direction might be queer, but that obviously hasn’t been remotely confirmed (He does know about Grindr though). Let’s just hope these My Policeman scenes go over better than that Euphoria episode did.
Fan photos and videos have been submitted to WyoPreps over the last few weeks providing a glimpse into spring sports.
A big thank you to all who submitted a photo or video.
Let’s start with Patrick Akers’s video for what he called, “the Sheridan boys out for a 3200-meter run.” It shows five teammates running in a pack at an early track meet.
Green River’s Kaelea Gibson wins the high jump at the Mountain View track meet with a new personal record of 5-4. This video is courtesy of Kendra Gibson.
Lovell’s Quinn Lindsay is in the throwing circle in this picture. Lindsay broke his dad’s 32-year old high school record in the discus earlier this season with a toss of 182-3. That mark leads the entire state of Wyoming this season. It happened in Powell at the LA Kohnke Athletic Roundtable track meet on April 10, 2021.
Courtesy: Chad Lindsay
Our next video is courtesy of Rock Springs head track coach Casey Walker, who sent us Cali Polastro’s record-breaking effort of 5-5.5 in the high jump at their home track meet on April 10, 2021.
Kevin Williams sent in a couple of great photos (nice timing)! The first is from the high jump at the KW-NC Dual in Casper on April 13, 2021.
Courtesy: Kevin Williams
The second photo is from the Dan Hansen Invitational track meet in Sheridan on April 17, 2021. Here’s a look at the 110 hurdles.
Courtesy: Kevin Williams
From the same Dan Hansen Invitational, Shaun Hottell submitted a pair of videos of Nolan Hottell from Thunder Basin High School in the high jump and 300-meter hurdles.
The final photo comes from Mountain View head girls’ soccer coach Jessi Moretti from their rivalry match against Lyman on April 19, 2021. Typical spring soccer conditions, right?
Courtesy: Jessi Moretti, Mountain View High School
You can always send photos or videos through WyoPreps.com or our WyoPreps app.
LOOK: The most famous actress born the same year as you
Many of the actresses in this story not only made a name for themselves through their collection of iconic performances, but also through the selfless, philanthropic nature with which many of them approached their stardom. In an age of flipping the script on societal norms, many of these actresses are using their voices and platforms to be advocates for those who are otherwise unheard.
Two lesbian former women’s sports coaches again failed to show the University of Minnesota-Duluth discriminated against them because of their sex, despite an intervening change in federal LGBT bias law, the District of Minnesota ruled Thursday.
Jen Banford and Annette Wiles’ Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights suit was back before the court on remand from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
The two women originally sued together with Shannon Miller, the university’s former five-time NCAA national championship-winning women’s hockey coach. But their claims were dismissed, in part because Title VII at the time wasn’t interpreted…
Of course, Adams is hoping that a victory this year will lead to a slightly better outcome.
O’Dwyer was a charismatic son of County Mayo and the older brother of the more famous Paul O’Dwyer, a noted civil rights lawyer and unabashed liberal who served a term as New York City Council President during the fiscal crisis years of the mid-1970s.
One incident during his years on the beat remained with him until his death, in 1964. While O’Dwyer was on patrol in Brooklyn one night in 1918, a frightened young boy told him that his father was trying to kill his mother. O’Dwyer rushed to the family’s apartment. The father swung around to face O’Dwyer with a pistol in his hand. O’Dwyer opened fire, killing the father.
The episode shook him, and O’Dwyer personally paid for the young boy’s expenses until he was an adult, when O’Dwyer found him a job in the department.
He studied law at night at Fordham Law School and eventually left the department to become a judge and then Brooklyn district attorney, where he made a name for himself for his prosecution of Murder Inc., a group of notorious gangsters. Another ambitious prosecutor across the East River, Thomas Dewey, was performing a similar service, leading to his election as governor in 1942.
O’Dwyer took a leave from his post as DA to join the Army during World War II, rising to become a brigadier general. He could hardly have been a more perfect candidate for mayor in 1945: Immigrant success story; crime-busting prosecutor; war hero. He won in a landslide, succeeding Fiorello LaGuardia, and was re-elected with similar ease in 1949.
But his second term didn’t last long. O’Dwyer, already in less-than-robust health because of heart ailments, quit abruptly in late 1950. Weeks later, prosecutors in Brooklyn announced a probe into a bookie who‘d allegedly paid out bribes to police officers, including several who were close to O’Dwyer. The bookie intimated that some of the money went to O’Dwyer. President Harry Truman named him ambassador to Mexico — O’Dwyer was fluent in Spanish — thus delivering him outside the jurisdiction of the United States. But scandals continued to dog him for years.
No mayor has resigned since O’Dwyer, and his once-uplifting story has been overshadowed by its less-than-inspiring end. He once summed up how the burdens of the mayor’s office could at times overwhelm him.
“You would look out over the city from some place high above it,” he said, “and you would say to yourself, ’Good Jesus, it’s too much for me!’”
IT’S THURSDAY, APRIL 22: Welcome to PM Playbook, an afternoon check-in to spill the day’s tea — as we know it thus far — during one of the busiest seasons in New York politics. It’s the email version of the sweet caffeine that carries your brain from lunch to dinner. Got tips or suggestions?Shoot an email to [email protected] in Albany and [email protected] in NYC or send a shout on Twitter.
“ADVOCATES and lawmakers who backed a measure that would require safety protocols in the workplace to prevent the spread of COVID-19 urged Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday to give it final approval once it reaches his desk. ‘As a nurse, I know how hard this last year has been for those working on the frontlines of the pandemic — worried about their health, the health of those around them and whether their work environment was a safe one,’ said Assemblywoman Karines Reyes, the measure’s sponsor in the state Assembly. ‘We need to ensure that corporations, who have made billions during this pandemic provide adequate protections to their employees and frontline workers.’ The bill, known as the NY Hero Act, would lay down a minimum set of safety standards and protocols for New York workplaces, such as access to personal protective equipment as well as breaks for hand washing.” State of Politics’ Nick Reisman
SCOTT STRINGER picked up the endorsement of the Stonewall Democrats of NYC, a prominent LGBT rights organization. Stringer tweeted that he was honored to receive the nod, the latest in a string of supportive announcements as the current city comptroller presses ahead in recent polls. “We’ve been in the trenches together for decades to advance equality for all New Yorkers — now let’s continue the fight for LGBTQ+ New Yorkers and work to build a city for everyone,” Stringer tweeted today.
— Stringer also picked up a nod from Ruth Messinger, New York City’s first female Democratic nominee for mayor.
— “As the mayoral campaign has come into focus, it’s become more obvious with each passing week that the climate candidate — the guy with the plan, the commitment and the chops to help protect the city from its one existential challenge — is Scott Stringer,” Bill McKibben, one of the country’s best-known environmental advocates, writes in today’s Daily News. Stringer has locked up significant support from the environmental community both for his work in divesting the city’s pension funds from fossil fuels, as well as his detailed climate plan.
DIANNE MORALES and Stringer were co-endorsed today by the Sunrise Movement NYC, which called both “transformative progressive candidates” who have pledged to work to enact a Green New Deal in New York City. At an event in Lower Manhattan, co-political director Grace Cuddihy praised both candidates’ climate proposals and records, citing Morales’ “green jobs, green food and green justice” plan, and Stringer’s record divesting the city’s pension funds from fossil fuels. Stringer said at the press conference, “A lot of people have climate agendas, but you stepped up to say that two candidates have agendas that can get things done, and that’s going to be a big deal in this campaign.” The group also announced its endorsement of Brad Lander in the comptroller’s race. — Janaki Chadha
ANDREW YANG is facing some blowback after comments made during an LGBTQ+ mayoral forum that some are criticizing as out of touch and insensitive. Yang appeared at the Stonewall Democrats of NYC, the city’s largest Demoractic LGBTQ+ political club, saying he’s now getting his education on gay bars, citing Stonewall and nearby Cubbyhole. “Well, first, let me say that if I go to Cubbyhole, I think I’m going to be accompanied by at least one of my two campaign managers, who are both gay,” the Hell’s Kitchen resident said with a laugh. “So there’s like a lot of, you know, familiarity with, with the community, at the head of my campaign leading it.” Yang added that he asked one of his campaign managers and Council Member Carlos Menchaca, who endorsed Yang this week, whether the LGBTQ community liked him — a difficult question for any politician to ask of a group of people who do not vote as a monolith, said Rose Christ, president of SDNYC. “He came across like he was a tourist in New York and said he wanted to visit a gay bar,” she said. — Amanda Eisenberg
ADAMS pushed today to reinstate the NYPD’s disbanded plainclothes anti-crime unit to combat a spike in gun violence across the city. At a press conference near the Park Slope site where a woman was fatally shot this week, Adams also pressed his proposal for random searches at bus terminals to check for guns being smuggled into the city. “A little more than a year ago, most of us felt safe. That level of safety is dissipating and eroding every day,” the Brooklyn borough president said. “Because we ignored the guns in Brownsville, now we’re seeing it spread to every part of the city.” — Erin Durkin
KATHRYN GARCIA also has some strong views on the climate, and it seems the mayor is still listening to his former sanitation commissioner’s advice. Yesterday we wrote how Garcia lambasted her former boss for stalling in the city’s organics recycling program. Today Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he was reinstating voluntary organics recycling pick-up, our Danielle Muoio and Madina Touré report. Was that good enough for Garcia? No, it was not. “The mayor’s ‘compost comeback’ plan to restore the program on an opt-in basis via enrollment doesn’t go far enough. Worse, it is going to turn composting into a ‘luxury’ that is available only for those New Yorkers with the resources to organize community support and submit bureaucratic paperwork,” she said in a statement. “Curbside organics should be universal — plain and simple.”
— De Blasio, who has been in better spirits than we’ve seen in some time, did a little comedy routine this morning where he talked to an organics recycling bin. Politics aside, it was arguably funnier than that time Clint Eastwood talked to a chair.
SHAUN DONOVAN was approved for $1.5 million in public matching funds today. The disbursement comes a week after the Campaign Finance Board withheld the money while investigating potential coordination between the former Obama Cabinet member’s mayoral campaign and a political action committee funded by $2 million from his father. Campaign finance rules prohibit coordination between PACs and campaigns, and in this case a complaint had been filed that prompted the CFB to withhold Donovan’s public money last week. The grievance was dismissed Thursday, allowing Donovan to get his matching funds while New Start NYC continues to flood the election with outside money from Donovan’s father. While disclosure requirements will show who is behind outside spending, the rise of these types of groups — there is also a pro-Ray McGuire PAC and at least three PACs supporting Yang — is part of a trend of monied interests operating under federal rules and doing an end-run around campaign finance reforms in New York City. “In this election cycle, several single-candidate super PACs have been established, particularly in connection with the race for mayor, and a significant level of contributions and expenditures is occurring to and by these PACs,” CFB Chair Frederick Schaffer said. “This development poses a particular challenge to the goals of the city’s system of public campaign financing.” Schaffer said that the board will consider amending its rules regarding coordination to potentially rein in the activity of these groups after this year’s elections.
— Donovan would create a specialized team to tackle Asian hate crimes if elected, the Daily News reports. It’s one of a litany of detailed plans Team Donovan has issued to make its case that the former Bloomberg and Obama official is the man with a plan. (Or, rather, the man with about 70 plans).
POLITICO will be co-hosting three NYC debates in June with NBC 4 New York/WNBC and Telemundo 47/WNJU in the races for mayor and comptroller. Moderators include City Hall Bureau Chief Sally Goldenberg, WNBC political reporter Melissa Russo, WNBC news anchor David Ushery and WNJU morning news anchor Allan Villafana. More info here.
Environment: Climate Works for All has a report out today showing “$200 million invested this year in those areas of climate infrastructure projects … will help create thousands of climate jobs in the near term, while putting New York City on a path to becoming a leader in climate policy in the post-pandemic world. The recommended $200 million would be a significant down payment toward building the green infrastructure of the future.”
Health: State lawmakers want mental health placed on equal footing with physical health in New York — and are seeking a constitutional amendment to do so. Sen. Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, Sen. John Mannion and Assemblywoman Didi Barrett on Wednesday proposed a constitutional amendment that would seek to raise the profile of mental health needs in New York. While a minor change of a handful of words, the amendment has the potential to boost mental health care services and programs in the state. Language for mental health care in New York has not been updated to the constitution in more than 80 years. — State of Politics’ Nick Reisman
Energy: Cuomo was joined for the second time in a week by a top Senate Democrat to celebrate accomplishments by his administration — this time the construction of a wastewater pipe that will restore the quality of the Western Bays on Long Island. State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, who represents a portion of Nassau County and has long supported a solution to the problem of wastewater with high levels of nitrogen being dumped into the bay, joined Cuomo at the outdoor, closed-to-press event at the Bay Park Water Reclamation Facility in East Rockaway. — Marie J. French
In an interview with the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City, Mr. Yang cited gay members of his staff as apparent evidence of his openness to the club’s concerns, and expressed enthusiasm about the prospect of visiting Cubbyhole, a storied New York lesbian bar, participants said.
He proactively talked about resurrecting the city’s Pride March, but failed to pay sufficient heed to more substantive issues they were actually concerned about, including homelessness and affordable housing, they said.
The club is arguably the leading L.G.B.T. club in New York City, according to Christine Quinn, New York City’s first openly gay City Council speaker. Its members, she said, are politically “sophisticated.” Yet Mr. Yang’s appearance struck those members as pandering and tone deaf, according to interviews, a video and a copy of the comments that unfolded during the virtual meeting.
“I genuinely do love you and your community,” he said, according to a partial recording of the remarks, describing his affection for the L.G.B.T.Q. community. “You’re so human and beautiful. You make New York City special. I have no idea how we ever lose to the Republicans given that you all are frankly in, like, leadership roles all over the Democratic Party.”
“We have, like, this incredible secret weapon,” he added. “It’s not even secret. It’s like, we should win everything because we have you all.”
According to limited public polling as well as private polling, Mr. Yang has surged to the front of the mayoral pack, fueled by his name recognition and celebrity status, as well as his cheery demeanor and optimistic discussion of the city’s future. But in the past, he has struggled with issues of tone: His presidential campaign has been trailed by allegations of a “bro” culture; in one of his own books, he admits to having named his pectoral muscles, Lex and Rex.
A woman now running for Manhattan borough president has also claimed that Mr. Yang had discriminated against her on the basis of gender when she worked for him at his test prep company, allegations that he has consistently denied.
While Mr. Yang has a consistent lead in the polls and has acquired a handful of endorsements from elected officials, he has generally failed to win significant support from New York City institutions, including labor unions and the Stonewall Club, which did not endorse him.
For the first time this year, New York City voters will be able to rank up to five candidates in a mayor’s race. On Wednesday, the club’s board voted to endorse a slate of three: In first place, it chose Scott M. Stringer, the New York City comptroller; followed by Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive; and Raymond J. McGuire, a former vice chairman at Citigroup.
Ms. Quinn, who was a longtime club member but was not present at the endorsement interviews, said that while people “appreciate diversity in representation and staffing,” club members have “a long and diverse agenda and want that spoken to.”
Multiple participants described Mr. Yang’s remarks as offensive, saying that members of the club who raised policy issues found his mention of gay bars off-putting.
“Gay, gay, gay. Wow,” one person wrote in the chat accompanying the forum, which was later shared with The New York Times. “More to us than just that.”
To Harris Doran, a club member and filmmaker, Mr. Yang’s insistence on referring to members as “your community” particularly stung.
“He kept calling us ‘Your community,’ like we were aliens,” Mr. Doran said.
Sasha Neha Ahuja, one of Mr. Yang’s two campaign managers — both are gay — said she heard at least one other candidate on the call use the same term, and suggested that some members had gone into the interview process with their minds already made up.
“I hope Andrew continues to have space for folks to listen with an open heart about the experiences of all communities that have been deeply impacted by years of oppression,” she said. “I apologize if folks felt some type of way about it.”
Mr. Yang’s interview was one of nine the club held Wednesday night, before it held its endorsement vote. He was unlikely to win an endorsement, given the club’s longstanding relationship with Mr. Stringer, but Rose Christ, the club’s president, said Mr. Yang could have delivered a performance that avoided the ensuing outcry.
“There were questions and critiques raised about each candidate, but I think it was the tenor with which he addressed the membership that stood out from the other candidates,” Ms. Christ said.
She added that it felt “outdated.”
To some Stonewall attendees, Mr. Yang’s appearance only fueled concerns about whether he can discuss the problems at hand with sufficient depth and seriousness. More broadly, the reaction speaks to how polarizing Mr. Yang’s personality can be — eliciting sincere enthusiasm and disdain in seemingly equal measure.
“When I see a candidate come in just with Michael Scott levels of cringe and insensitivity, it either tells me Andrew Yang is in over his head or is not listening to his staff,” said Alejandra Caraballo, a member of the organization, referring to the character played by Steve Carell on “The Office.” “Those are both radioactive flashing signs that say he is not prepared to be mayor of New York.”
Ms. Christ said members were offended that Mr. Yang chose to focus on bars, parades and his gay staff members.
“Those are not the substantive issues that our membership cares about and it came off poorly,” Ms. Christ said.
