HomoQuotable - Ed Koch

"I believe that same-sex marriage will be approved by a majority of the fifty states in the Union within the next five years. When that occurs, the federal resistance will end and the Congress will vote in favor of federal recognition of same-sex marriages with equal benefits to both homosexual and heterosexual couples. [snip]

"The very next political objective of civil rights advocates should be to achieve in every state that which exists now in New York state, a law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation Today only 20 states protect their homosexual citizens from discrimination. There are cities in some states that have adopted protective legislation where the state has declined, as was the case in New York City. The Empire State Pride Agenda has informed me that the organization has no current compilation of the number of cities providing protection.

"Simultaneously, at the federal level, an effort should be made to end President Clinton’s alleged compromise of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which, regrettably, caused even more gays and lesbians than before the law was adopted to be discharged from the U.S. armed forces. Men and women should be able to serve in the armed forces without regard to their sexual orientation and without any requirement that they conceal it." - Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, in an editorial published in the Yonkers Tribune.

Koch believes that New York will be the next state to approve same-sex marriage and says that Gov. Paterson should offer to campaign for whomever supports marriage equality, regardless of party affiliation. He also seems unaware that for many years there has been a massive national campaign to achieve the passage of ENDA and the repeal of DADT. Koch was recently profiled in the movie Outrage for his inaction during the early days of AIDS when thousands of his fellow homosexuals in NYC were dying.