NEW YORK: ACT UP Crashes Ceremony Honoring Home Of Closet Case Ed Koch

Members of ACT UP yesterday crashed the ceremony to announce that the home of late New York City mayor and closet case Ed Koch is being named a historical landmark. That apartment building, NOT incidentally, is also the home of Larry Kramer.

Tweet Of The Day - Karl Frisch

No @JoeLhota4Mayor you wouldn't be 1st NYC Mayor with a beard in 100 yrs. Koch had #BessMyerson. #GoogleIt #votebeard pic.twitter.com/cBZuwxEa6Z
— Karl Frisch (@KarlFrisch) September 26, 2013

Next Stop On The 6 Train: Koch Station?

As the funeral for former NYC mayor Ed Koch takes place today, we learn that there is a campaign to name the East 77th Street subway station for him.

After Ed Koch is laid to rest today, a group of city officials will gather to push to name the 77th Street station on the 6 line after the beloved 105th mayor of New York. The three-term mayor, who died Friday at age 88, had long campaigned at the station, first as congressman and later as mayor, with his immortal question, “How’m I doin’?” “He called it his favorite stop on the subway,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who is leading the push for the name change. It may be a tougher sell than the 2011 renaming of the city-run Queensboro Bridge after Koch. “We don’t name stations after people,” said MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg. “We have never named a station after anybody.” But an aide to Maloney, Jacob Tugendrajach, called the proposal “a done deal.”

Maloney is my House rep and a fierce backer of LGBT rights.  I wonder how well she knows what we tend to think about the late mayor.

HomoQuotable - Richard Kim

"By January 1984, New York City under Koch’s leadership had spent a total of just $24,500 on AIDS. That same year, San Francisco, a city one tenth the size of New York, spent $4.3 million, a figure that grew to over $10 million annually by 1987. The mayor of San Francisco during those years was Dianne Feinstein, who like Koch was no radical. She came from the centrist coalition that included Dan White, the city supervisor who murdered Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, whose office Feinstein assumed in the wake. Like Koch, she had a troubled relationship with the gay community (she infamously vetoed a domestic partnership bill in 1983). And like Koch, she was, above all, a political opportunist with national ambitions who happened to live in a liberal city with a large, politically active gay population. But she was straight, and paradoxically, that made a difference in how those two cities treated people with AIDS in those formative years.

"Ed Koch might not have been in a position to accelerate antiretroviral drug development or slow the transmission of HIV on a national scale, but he definitely could have made the lives of thousands of people with AIDS in New York City a whole lot more humane, which might also have extended some of those lives until an effective treatment was available. That he has blood on his hands seems likely. That he is guilty of the curious combination of paranoia, myopia, self-interest and callousness that so often attaches to closeted public officials seems undeniable. Would the fight against AIDS been helped had Ed Koch come out of the closet? Possibly. But it definitely would have been better had he just been straight. God bless his surely weary soul. I won’t." - Richard Kim, writing for The Nation.

Read the full essay.

Ed Koch's Tombstone

Saying that he couldn't bear the idea of spending eternity in New Jersey, in 2009 Ed Koch purchased a plot in the Washington Heights cemetery which was the last in Manhattan still doing burials.  The tombstone, which Koch designed himself, has been waiting at the site since then. The inscription bears the final words of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and notes that Pearl was "beheaded by a Muslim terrorist."  Before settling on the Washington Heights location, Koch had conferred with rabbis for permission to be buried in a "non-Jewish" cemetery.

Newsday, 1989

While Ed Koch may spent the last two decades of his life refusing to discuss his sexuality, he did say something about it in 1989. (Tipped by JMG reader Bill)

HomoQuotable - Michael Musto

"It's a shame the ex-NYC mayor never came out. It's tragic that he hid behind excuses like the fact that he was old and wasn't sexual at all anymore. Old people are still sexual--and if you're gay, you're still gay--and besides, he could have commented on his past. But Ed was so paranoid on the subject that when I interviewed him in the '90s, he propped up a tape recorder to tape me as I recorded him. It was a creepy double game of 'gotcha!' that led nowhere (though he was otherwise gruffly charming). [snip] The world is now an emptier place, but so is the celebrity closet." - Michael Musto, writing for the Village Voice.

Ed Koch Dies At Age 88

Former New York City mayor Ed Koch died this morning at the age of 88.

As mayor from 1978 to 1989, the forceful, quick-witted Koch, with his trademark phrase "How'm I Doing?," was a polarizing figure and the city's constant promoter. Koch died at about 2 a.m. (0700 GMT) at New York-Presbyterian hospital, the spokesman for Koch said. Koch was credited with lifting New York from crushing economic crises to a level of prosperity that was the envy of other U.S. cities. Under his leadership, the city regained its fiscal footing and undertook a building renaissance. But his three terms in office were also marked by racial tensions, corruption among many of his political cronies, the rise in AIDS and HIV, homelessness and a high crime rate. In 1989, he lost the Democratic nomination for what would have been a record fourth term as mayor.

Throughout his life Koch refused to acknowledge his gayness.  Four years ago he spoke to the New York Times about being asked.

“I do not want to add to the acceptability of asking every candidate, ‘Are you straight or gay or lesbian?’ and make it a legitimate question, so I don’t submit to that question. I don’t care if people think I’m gay because I don’t answer it. I’m flattered that at 84 people are interested in my sex life — and, it’s quite limited.”

During his tenure as mayor, Koch was especially despised by AIDS activists, who accused him of slowing the reaction to the epidemic out of fear of being outed himself. None were more disdainful of Koch than Larry Kramer.

A few years after he left Gracie Mansion, Ed Koch ran into gay-rights activist and playwright Larry Kramer in the lobby of their apartment building on Washington Square. Mr. Kramer had famously been a harsh critic of what he believed was Mr. Koch’s slow response to the AIDS crisis, satirizing him as closeted and craven in his 1985 play The Normal Heart, about the syndrome then baffling doctors, and confronting the indifference of public health officials like those in Mr. Koch’s administration. Hundreds of New Yorkers dead or dying from a terrifying new disease and the mayor couldn’t give less than a damn, according to Mr. Kramer. For Mr. Koch, though, it was bygones.  “He was trying to pet my dog Molly and he started to tell me how beautiful it was,” Mr. Kramer once told The New Yorker of the incident, recounted in N.Y.U. Polytechnic historian Jonathan Soffer’s Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City. “I yanked her away so hard she yelped, and I said, ‘Molly, you can’t talk to him. That is the man who killed all of Daddy’s friends.’”

Koch was a regular target of ACT UP.

Koch, a documentary about his life, debuted this week.

NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the favorite to win this year's mayoral campaign, this morning issued a statement on Koch's death.  Via press release:

"All of New York City is in mourning today as we say goodbye to a great mayor, a great man, and a great friend.  Ed Koch dedicated his life to the five boroughs. He loved this city fiercely and it loved him back. He saved us from the brink of bankruptcy, raised our spirits, and restored our city’s reputation in the world. He rebuilt our crumbling infrastructure, adding more than 150,000 units of affordable housing. And after leaving office he continued to make New York a better place, inspiring us through his writing, his activism, and his commitment to change. But he was more than just the sum total of his accomplishments. Mayor Koch was larger than life. He stood taller than the bridge that bears his name. His sense of humor and tenacious spirit personified this town. Ed Koch was New York."

Closeted Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch Reviews How To Survive A Plague

Poz.com blogger and renowned activist Peter Staley tips us that closeted former NYC Mayor Ed Koch has reviewed the AIDS documentary, How To Survive A Plague. Staley notes that Koch fails to mention his own detestable role in thwarting the early response to what would become a global pandemic. From Koch's review:

While demonstrations were necessary to keep the issue on the front burner, Act Up protesters occasionally went too far, e.g., when they entered St. Patrick's Cathedral, took communion hosts from the priest's hands, and threw the wafers to the ground insulting many Catholics. Those wafers are, for Catholics, the Body of Christ.  The person who makes the greatest impact in the film because of his superb speaking ability is Peter Staley. In his New York Times review of this movie, Stephen Holden describes Staley as: "A former closeted Wall Street bond trader with H.I.V. who left his job and helped found the Treatment Action Group, an offshoot of Act Up. Self-taught in the science of AIDS, the group collaborated with pharmaceutical companies like Merck in the development of new drugs."

Others named in the Times' review as major leaders of Act Up, which began its activities in 1987, are Larry Kramer, Robert Rafsky and Ann Northrop, all of whom appear in the film. I don't know if these individuals were ever honored by the White House for what they did in fighting government and powerful corporations. If not, I urge President Obama to do so by presenting them and other leaders recognized by Act Up with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This superb documentary directed by David France should not be missed. Regrettably, when I saw it on a Sunday at 2:00 p.m., there were only about ten other people in the theater. I urge our Chancellor of Education to show the documentary in our public schools. It would teach children a lot of lessons, the chief one being the community can, working together, speak truth to power and win.

Larry Kramer himself has commented on the above-linked review in the manner for which he is best known:

What is this evil man up to as he approaches his death? Is he trying to make up to us? National Medals of Freedom from the White House! Would these provide a big enough enema to clean out his rotten insides? We must never forget that this man was an active participant in helping us to die, in murdering us. Call it what you will, that is what Edward Koch was, a murderer of his very own people. There is no way to avoid knowing that now. The facts have long since been there staring us in the face. If we don't see them, then we are as complicit as he.

Closet Case Ed Koch: Imprisoned Russian Punkers Pussy Riot Are As Bad As ACT UP

Former NYC mayor and closeted homosexual Ed Koch has penned an editorial praising the imprisonment of Pussy Riot, saying the jailed Russian punkers are as bad as ACT UP, who also once demonstrated inside a Catholic cathedral. You may recall that Koch and ACT UP tangled many times during his 80s reign as mayor when he resisted their calls for action. Koch writes:

The Western cultural elite is rallying to the defense of the disrupters in the cathedral. Some approve of the verbal attack on Putin. Others support the denunciation of the Russian Orthodox church leadership and the church disruption because of the church leadership support of Putin. All cited characterize the issue as one of free speech. I do not. I would assume that many Pussy Riot supporters would take a different position, and rightly so, if here in the U.S. a black church were invaded and three men or women engaged in comparable conduct insulting holy places within the church and the pastor.　

I recall when I was Mayor in 1989 and the AIDS activist group Act Up, unjustifiably angry with John Cardinal O’Connor, invaded St. Patrick’s Cathedral and interrupted the Mass, throwing the Communion wafers – which for Catholics are the actual Body of Christ – to the floor.　 Some were arrested.　 So far as I can recall, no one was punished.　 I think the decision of the Russian court to punish a hate crime was just and to be applauded, rather than condemned and ridiculed.　 One can argue concerning the degree of punishment, whether fines rather than jail time should have been imposed, but that is a function of the Russian penalty procedures.　

Famed activist and ACT UP founder Larry Kramer once wrote of encountering Koch while Kramer was walking his dog. As the then mayor leaned over to pet the dog, Kramer said to Fido, "That's the man who killed all of Daddy's friends."

RELATED: Another well-known AIDS activist tips me today that when the Independent Film Channel yesterday invited Koch to a Manhattan screening of the AIDS documentary, How To Survive A Plague, Koch abruptly unsubscribed to the IFC mailing list, to which he'd belonged for years.

HomoQuotable - Ed Koch

"I was truly shocked to read in the New York Times of April 12 that 'President Obama disappointed and vexed gay supporters on Wednesday with his decision, conveyed to activists by a senior adviser, not to sign an executive order banning discrimination by employers with federal contracts.' When I was elected mayor of New York City in 1977, taking office January 1, 1978, I issued such an executive order prohibiting such discrimination within the first 30 days of my administration. [snip]

"The public is ahead of the legislators they elected to Congress who will not enact such protections. According to a Gallup poll, 53 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage. Surely, an even larger number support ending discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Mr. President, you have led the way on so many social needs. Please rethink your position on this one. The LGBT community has suffered discrimination too long to be asked to wait even longer." - Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, writing for Newsmax.

NOTE: Longtime readers will recall that I've occasionally been quite critical of Koch over the years. So not only is the above message a welcome one, I'm pleased to point out that in the above-linked editorial, Koch even mentioned New York's long-lingering GENDA bill.

NEW YORK CITY: Koch Endorses Quinn

Closeted former NYC Mayor Ed Koch says that when openly gay City Council Speaker Christine Quinn formally announces her 2013 run for mayor, he'll endorse her. But he makes no bones about Quinn not being his first choice.

Former Mayor Ed Koch thinks Chris Quinn is the best person to take his old job in 2013 now that he’s given up his dream of seeing NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly in City Hall. “I urged Ray Kelly to run for the last year-and-a-half. He told me he would not. I urged him again, he told me he would not. And when he decided he would not, I started backing Chris Quinn,” Mayor Koch told Politicker.

Quinn seems to have survived her 2008 financial scandal relatively well, although a small but extremely vocal contingent of LGBT enemies continue to dog many of her public appearances. Other possible 2013 mayoral contenders have problems of their own. City Comptroller John Liu is currently embroiled in a financial scandal involving Chinese nationals who may have illegally funneled money to his campaign. As for Anthony Weiner, some still do hold out dimming hopes of his running.

Ed Koch Flip-Flops On Obama

Remember how closet case and former NYC Mayor Ed Koch supported an anti-gay Republican for the U.S. House in order to punish the president for "abandoning Israel"? Remember how much mileage NOM has gotten out of that mess? Forget all that, because now Koch says he loves the president again because Obama clearly "got my message."

Koch says he's pleased with Obama's stance on the Palestinians' bid for United Nations membership, urging more talks with Israel before any action is taken. The U.S. vowed to use its Security Council vote to block the Palestinians if necessary. "What I said earlier was that I thought that President Obama had engaged in hostile actions toward the state of Israel, and I wanted to send him a message not to take the Jewish voters for granted," he told the Daily News. "The message was delivered and I noticed that President Obama's speech at the UN and support of Israel were superb."

Koch says he's now "back on the bus" for Obama 2012.

NOM Celebrates NY-09

Convinced that President Obama has somehow "abandoned Israel," yesterday Brooklyn's massive Orthodox Jewish community provided the margin for GOP candidate Bob Turner to flip a U.S. House district that has been Democrats' hands for decades. NOM, of course, is ignoring the "punish Obama" factor and is claiming that the election was entirely a statement on same-sex marriage. Whatevs. NY-09 will likely vanish in next year's redistricting.

RELATED: Self-hating closeted homosexual and former NY mayor Ed Koch, who actually does support same-sex marriage, took the stage last night at Turner's victory party, where the two stood under a giant Israeli flag to denounce the president.

Koch On His Critics: Fuck Those Guys

As I noted here earlier this week, former NYC mayor Ed Koch has endorsed the NOM-backed anti-gay GOP candidate in the special election to replace Rep. Anthony Weiner. And Koch is not too happy to be called out as the closet case that he is for making this endorsement.

[Daniel] Dromm, who is one of a handful of LGBT members of the City Council, says Koch should be supporting Democrat David Weprin, because Weprin supports same-sex marriage, and Koch, Dromm says, is gay. “Koch’s whole thing is bizarre,” Dromm said, taking special exception to the former mayor’s support for an opponent of gay marriage since he is “a closet case.” He is joined in his criticism by fiery LGBT activist Allen Roskoff, who tells the paper, “It’s a disgrace that Ed Koch is supporting someone who would deny his right to marry.” Koch has a salty response: "Oh, fuck those two guys."

Closet Case Ed Koch Endorses NOM-Backed Anti-Gay Repub For Anthony Weiner's Seat

Saying he wants to punish President Obama for "abandoning Israel," three-term former NYC mayor and closet case Ed Koch has thrown his support behind the anti-gay GOP candidate running in the special election to replace disgraced Rep. Anthony Weiner. Former cable TV executive Bob Turner (above left) opposes same-sex marriage and says he strongly opposes the repeal of DOMA. Village Voice columnist Harry Seigal interviewed Koch:

"I see this only contested congressional race in the country as an opportunity to do what the election of Scott Brown did in Massachusetts," Koch told me in an e-mail. "As a result of that election, Obama moderated his political philosophy on domestic issues. In fact, he folded on too many issues, e.g., the Bush tax cuts. Now, if the Jews turn their backs on him, he may see the wisdom of jettisoning his hostility to Israel." Koch, who has crossed party lines in the past to endorse Republicans, emerged as a prominent Jewish hawk after 9/11, backing George Bush in 2004 in response to statements then–Democratic frontrunner Howard Dean made about Israel.

While he has very publicly endorsed gay marriage, Koch has steadfastly refused to answer questions about his own gayness, often turning the tables on male reporters and asking them when they last had oral sex. New York state Assemblyman David Weprin, the Democrat in the campaign, has endured vicious attacks from fellow Orthodox Jews who are furious over Weprin's vote in support of same-sex marriage. The nastily anti-gay state Sen. Dov Hikind (D) has threatened to cross party lines and endorse Turner.

VIDEO: Yesterday NOM posted this clip in which the interviewer rails against Weprin for a full minute before even allowing a response.

Kickin' Down The Cobblestones

New York City has officially renamed the Queensboro/59th Street Bridge after its most famous closet case, former Mayor Ed Koch, who still coyly refuses to come out at the age of 86. I really hate the renaming of iconic century-old landmarks, particularly when that person had nothing to do with its construction. Coming up next, the Bloomberg Midtown Tunnel?

Ed Koch For New York Marriage

Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch is 86 years old and he still won't come out, but at least he supports marriage equality. From a famed 2007 interview with Time Out New York:

TONY: Are you gay?

KOCH: When was the last time you performed oral sex on your boyfriend?

TONY: Well I’m single now so it was a long time ago.

KOCH: See, I don’t think you should answer that question. It’s an improper question, and so is yours. My sexual orientation is none of your business and whether or not you performed oral sex on your boyfriend is none of my business.

Here's his just-released clip for the HRC.

HomoQuotable - Ed Koch

"Solicitor General Elena Kagan's sexual orientation is the subject of much discussion in blogs and mainstream newspapers. The White House response denied Ms. Kagan is a lesbian. Instead, shouldn't the White House have denounced the speculation and conveyed that such inquiries are improper? By denying she is lesbian instead of denouncing the inquiry, the White House is implicitly stating sexual orientation is a legitimate issue of discussion in the confirmation process.

"On the positive side, raising the issue of Ms. Kagan's sexual orientation may give more support to Barney Frank's [ENDA] bill with 198 co-sponsors in the House and Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon with a similar bill and 45 co-sponsors barring employment discrimination by the federal government against people because of their sexual identity. Only 20 states in the Union - New York being one of them - have such legislation. The current debate regarding Ms. Kagan's candidacy demonstrates the imperative of passing such legislation. How many U.S. Senators now considering Ms. Kagan's nomination will vote for such legislation? Write to yours and let's find out. Also, ask your member of Congress." - Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, writing for the Huffington Post.

For decades Koch has refused to acknowledge his own gayness, which explains why he's so upset about the speculation regarding Elena Kagan.

(Via - Towleroad)

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.