BROOKLYN: Crackpot Anti-Gay Assemblyman Dov Hikind Dons Blackface

New York state Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) is the state's second-most vicious anti-gay legislator, falling only slightly behind Sen. Ruben Diaz, who is also a Democrat.  The New York Post reports on his latest bit of assholery.

Assemblyman Dov Hikind donned a blackface costume yesterday at his blowout Purim party and defended the outrageous getup as a harmless “basketball” look. The joyous Jewish celebration of Purim can often involve Halloween-type costumes and Hikind didn’t spare any detail in his curious retro look. He wore brown face paint, sunglasses, an Afro wig and an orange jersey. “I was just, I think, I was trying to emulate, you know, maybe some of these basketball players. Someone gave me a uniform, someone gave me the hair of the actual, you know, sort of a black basketball player,” Hikind told the political news Web site Politicker.

Hikind says he cannot imagine how anybody would find his costume inappropriate, insensitive, racist, or just plain in poor taste. All four! (Tipped by JMG reader Little David)

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG:  During New York state's 2011 marriage equality debate in the Assembly, Hikind brandished a photograph of Lady Gaga and declared that if marriage passes, "We should take the Torah and throw it in the garbage." In 2010 Hikind attempted to have gay victims of the Holocaust stricken from a planned memorial in his home district because seeing that homosexuals were murdered by the Nazis "diminishes the memory" of the Jews that were also slaughtered.

UPDATE: This afternoon NYC media outlets besieged Hikind's Brooklyn home, where he non-apologized "if people were offended."  Hikind also revealed that he is reconsidering his plan to dress as a Native American for next year's Purim. Seriously.

NEW YORK: Democrats Seek To Expel Renegade State Sen. Simcha Felder

As I noted yesterday, newly-elected Democratic state Sen. Simcha Felder has announced that he will caucus with the GOP, imperiling the chance of Democratic control of the chamber for the first time in many years, not to mention jeopardizing the long overdue Gender Non-Discrimination Act, which has languished for a decade. Now the Democrats say they are exploring how to expel Felder from the party.

George Arzt, a spokesman for the Kings County Democratic Leader, told me Democratic party officials are looking at "both the Kings County and state Democratic Party rules" to see if Felder could be ousted from the party. "If they do not have provisions, they will propose ways of expelling members for actions of this type," Arzt said. Already, Assemblyman Nick Perry, also of Brooklyn, wrote on Twitter that Felder "should be removed from [the] Dem[ocratic] Party. Let the GOP have him." In a statement this evening, the Brooklyn Democratic County Leader Frank Seddio, said, "Felder's entire campaign was a lie." "Every elected Democrat has an moral obligation to support the leadership of the party in the Legislature, but Felder has elected to betray that trust, not to mention the sacred trust of voters," Seddio said.

Felder was elected from Brooklyn's newly-drawn and heavily Orthodox Jewish district. His campaign was supported by Democratic state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, one of New York's nastiest opponents of LGBT rights. (During the 2011 marriage battle Hikind said that if New York were to approve same-sex marriage, "We take the Torah, God forbid, and throw it in the garbage.") Responding to the ouster threats, Felder said yesterday, "The Democratic party doesn’t sound very democratic today."

Now Appearing In The NYC Subway

In a story somewhat related the post below this one, New York state Assemblyman Dov Hikind is super-pissed about the above ad, which has begun appearing in the NYC subway. Hikind: "This is a one-sided mean-spirited attempt to undermine the security and well being of the people of Israel. They say this is for peace. This is not for peace. This is for war." (You may recall the homophobic Hikind brandishing a photo of Lady Gaga during the marriage equality debate.) According to the group behind the ad, the United States has committed thirty billion dollars to Israel over the next ten years.

Asshat Of The Day - Dov Hikind

New York state Assemblyman Dov Hikind says that approving marriage equality means "we take the Torah, God forbid, and throw it in the garbage." He also seems to believe we'll all be forced to wear telephones on our heads.

BROOKLYN: NY Assemblyman Dov Hikind Attacks Westboro's Shirley Phelps

At Westboro Baptist Church's picket outside a synagogue in Brooklyn yesterday, NY Assemblyman Dov Hikind lunged through the barricades to shove Shirley Phelps-Roper. She says she will not press charges. FYI, Hikind is a completely deranged anti-gay asshat, so you might want to hold your applause.

NY Assemblyman Dov Hikind: No Gays At Holocaust Memorial

New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn), a notorious homophobe who routinely attempts to block LGBT rights legislation, is pissed off because homosexuals and other groups persecuted by the Nazis will be represented at a Holocaust memorial in Hikind's home borough.

Hikind said even though 5 million people from other groups -- including gays, the disabled and Jehovah's Witnesses -- were killed along with 6 million Jewish people during the Holocaust, the memorial in Sheepshead Bay should be for Jews only. "To include these other groups diminishes their memory," said Hikind, as he stood next to his 89-year-old mother, Frieda. He said he is not against a memorial to honor the other groups -- as long as it is somewhere else. "These people are not in the same category as Jewish people with regards to the Holocaust," Hikind said following a press conference at the memorial. "It is so vastly different. You cannot compare political prisoners with Jewish victims."

The NYC Parks Department has already signed off on having markers installed at the memorial noting the murders of gays, Gypsies, and other groups. Mayor Bloomberg has issued a statement in support of the new markers.