Our annual event honoring the NYC Council LGBT Caucus, Family Equality Council Executive Director Gabriel Blau, Former VP of SDNYC Neill Coleman, Immediate Past President Melissa Sklarz and community activists Robbie Kaplan and Rachel Lavine was a success! Thank you to the 200+ people who came out on Thursday to support our event and club. We couldn't do our work without you!
SDNYC invites you to join us at our annual cocktail reception and Lew Todd CUNY scholarship fundraiser on May 15, 2014 at the Woolworth Tower Kitchen (9 Barclay Street, Manhattan, NYC). The event will begin at 6:00 PM and the program will begin shortly after 7:00 PM.
We hope you will join us as Stonewall Democrats of New York City (SDNYC) honors these New York LGBT leaders and allies for their tireless work on behalf of our community.
Please share this invitation! Anyone interested in receiving updates can RSVP on Facebook to SDNYC's Annual Event.
Go to the events page for more information, to sponsor this event and to purchase tickets!
This Thursday, May 15, 2014 the New York State Republican Party is scheduled to nominate Rob Astorino as its candidate for Governor of NY State. Astorino is anti-gay, anti-women and anti-progressive. We are ready to Rally Against Rob Astorino.
Astorino is a right-wing ideologue who is both anti-gay and anti-choice. He opposes same-sex marriage and a woman's right to choose. When asked about same-sex marriage in New York State, he says he “has his own beliefs.” He patronized LGBT activists by “commending the community on gaining marriage equality the right way” - through the legislative process, rather than the courts. In essence, Rob Astorino does not believe that LGBT individuals should not have equal rights as protected by the Constitution. He doesn’t believe that LGBT individuals who live in states controlled by conservative legislatures should have the right to seek same-sex marriage. We don’t believe his anti-gay logic is right for New York State.
New York State cannot afford to go backwards. We fought hard for equal rights and there is more left to do. We don’t need right-wing ideologues leading our state government.
Tell the NYS Republicans they are wrong about Rob Astorino, and remind them that LGBT New Yorkers vote.
Join us on this Thursday May 15, 2014 as we protest in front of the Republican Convention at the Rye Town Hilton. Free buses will be leaving from Manhattan at 9:00 AM and returning by 1:30 PM (location will be announced to all who sign up for a seat). Please join us, rain or shine, in standing up to Rob Astorino. Click here to reserve a seat on the bus.
We guarantee you will be back in New York City with enough time to get ready for Stonewall's Annual Event, which will be at the Woolworth Kitchen, 9 Barclay Street, from 6-8PM. You can buy your tickets at sdnyc.org/events.
We hope to see you Thursday!
Please join us this coming Wednesday, April 23rd at 8PM for our next monthly general membership meeting. We are continuing our series of "Meet the Candidates: 2014 Election" and will have candidates from across the five boroughs. This will include civil court judicial candidates Louis L. Nock, J. Machelle Sweeting, and Richard Tsai; Marybeth Melendez, candidate for Assembly in Staten Island against republican incumbent Nicole Malliotakis; a representative from Congressman Charles Rangel's office among others.
We look forward to seeing you there! NYU - Meyer Building 4 Washington Pl, New York, NY 10003 Room, 122
Yesterday, Mayor de Blasio said that religious organizations have the right to use our City’s public school buildings as their own, going against a long-standing court decision ruling that the Department of Education did not have to allow faith services in academic buildings. This is extremely troubling.
This is not a debate on freedom of religion or speech, but rather a look at if religious organizations should be allowed to use government property as their own. Allowing religious groups to rent space from public schools can be seen as a show of support for all religious practices that enter the academic building. In the past, this has included hate speech.
In 2011, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Department of Education did not have to allow religious services in schools, and that this prohibition did not violate the First Amendment - a decision that was recently reaffirmed. The ruling was the result of a 16 year court case, regarding the Bronx Household of Faith.
What our City's history shows us on this issue is allowing religious organizations to utilize public school buildings as their own space, results in an abuse of power. Groups have masked as faith groups to spread hate speech about certain constituencies – including the LGBT community.
In the backyard of where the LGBT movement started, the Village Church used P.S. 3 in Greenwich Village as its house of worship from 2003-2012. During their time in using the public school as their place of worship, the group also ran an organization called GAME - Gender Affirming Ministry Endeavor. This program was run to 'convert' members of the LGBT community, which was part of the widely discredited and condemned Exodus International Church – a religious organization. We can't allow groups like this to multiply and spread to other communities, while utilizing government property as their own, under the Mayor's new decision.
We believe using a public school building to preach hate runs counter to our City's mission of ensuring all students feel welcome and safe in our schools.
The Mayor has decided and is moving forward with the reversal of the implementation of the Court's decision. We call on Mayor de Blasio to outline his plan to ensure organizations, like these and others out there, would not be allowed to use public government property to spread hate under the guise of religious worship.
