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More recently, Bloomberg destroyed the Advantage program, which helped people in NYC shelters pay for subsidized apartments. It was, according to Kate Barnhart of New Alternatives for LGBT Homeless Youth, “pretty much the only path to housing for many of the LGBT youth in city shelters, since it’s impossible to save up enough to pay market rents with a minimum wage job.” Swanning around Albany and making a big speech at Cooper Union may have been good for Bloomberg’s ego, but did nothing, ultimately, to sway legislators.
Finally, there’s Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ended up doing a lot these past few weeks, despite not having bothered to even show up for the Empire State Pride Agenda’s big lobbying day last month. Yet his state budget spared the wealthy the pain of paying their fair share of taxes while slashing homeless youth shelter beds by a third. It certainly didn’t seem to bother him that all youth, but disproportionately the queer youth who make up 40 percent of the homeless youth population, would pay heavily for his cuts. To say nothing of his part in the whole “religious exemptions” debacle.
Here’s hoping that passage of this bill will send a message to our eternally equivocating president that maybe, just maybe, he can finally muster the political will to get behind something that a majority of Americans already support. When that day comes, don’t expect me to hand him a Profile in Courage award. I’ve never sent anyone a thanks-for-finally-getting-it-together-to-support-my-basic-human-rights card, and I’m not going to start now.
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Not Exactly a Profile in Courage: New York Finally Passes Gay Marriage | The Nation
I love Nancy. I hate Bloomberg and Cuomo and every pseudo-liberal shit who thinks that passing marriage equality gives them a pass for the things they do that ruin the lives of working-class queers (or working-class hetero folks, or ANYONE).
