Alan Van Capelle

Assemblyman Dov Hikind just emailed me a statement in response to an earlier statement from gay rights activist Alan Van Capelle slamming him for opposing same-sex marriage.

Capelle, responding to a column in the Daily News by Errol Louis, said, “I guess Errol Louis doesn't mind standing with Dov Hikind, and I don't think that's where most people want to stand.”

Hikind’s response: “If we authorize gay marriage in the state of New York, those who want to live and love incestuously will be five steps closer to achieving their goals as well.”

Hikind's full response is after the jump.  read more »

One of the more exciting conversational themes in Albany today is Errol Louis' column in the Daily News about gay marriage. In it, he writes that the effort to legalize gay marriage, which passed the state Assembly this week, has provided a template for efforts around the country to legalize polygamy and incest.

Gay marriage advocates have reacted furiously, with a number of them emailing and calling me to express their outrage.

Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, said, “I found it absolutely disgusting.” Capelle pointed out that the sexual deviants Louis cites in his column are actually all straight people.

“So don't drag us down with the bottom of the heterosexual group,” he said.

Louis, when told of Van Capelle’s comments, emailed me to say, “One possible response is dismissive ‘disgust.’ A more serious strategy would be to craft an argument for why stable, consensual, adult same-sex relationships should be recognized by the state but stable, consensual, adult sibling sexual relationships should not.”

The full Van Capelle-Louis exchange is after the jump.  read more »

Now that the gay marriage bill passed the Assembly 85 to 61, what’s next?

“It goes to the senate,” Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told me on his way into the elevator behind the Assembly Chambers. “I’d like them to consider it. They might have the votes.” He went on to say, “There are a lot of issues that take time. Plain and simple.”

Here is Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda and his thoughts on what happens next.

I chatted with Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, about the push he's leading in Albany today for a same-sex marriage bill. The strategy, as he laid it out, is to get the bill--which Governor Spitzer supports--through the Assembly first, and then subsequently to “shame” the Republican-controlled Senate into passing it.

But that first step -- getting the bill passed through the Democratically-controlled Assembly -- is by no means a given.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has still not stated his personal position on the issue, on the grounds that he doesn’t want to prejudice the  Democratic conference. I asked his office yesterday if he’s ever taken a position on the issue before becoming Speaker. I’m still waiting to hear back.

Gay City News has a piece about the ESPA endorsement of Sean Patrick Maloney last night. In it, ESPA Executive Director, Alan Van Capelle, has this to say about the other Democratic candidates in the race for AG:

"This primary is an embarrassment of riches," Van Capelle told Gay City News. "For each one of the six candidates, I could name at least two things they've done for the LGBT community. Each of them has publicly stated support for same-sex marriage and that's amazing."

—Nicole Brydson

A couple of weeks ago, Empire State Pride Agenda executive director Alan Van Capelle's criticisms of Hillary, obtained by The Politicker, made national news. Since then, he's been declining interviews, but he has an op-ed in Gay City News today which -- though it doesn't mention Hillary -- lays out a political agenda for a movement that's feeling pretty strong right now, and that's trying to leverage the activism that's politically important in New York, and the money that's politically important nationally, into political clout.

Without naming names, he makes his criticism fairly clear:

In the last two years, some of the meanest, ugliest homophobes began to wage war against our community. It seemed that every day brought new attacks. There were constitutional amendments and threats of a Defense of Marriage Act. They said we were a threat to the sanctity of marriage, as if we were a people incapable of real love or devoid of a spiritual life. They said we were unfit to parent children. We were vilified.

As New Yorkers, we know what to do when a friend of ours is attacked — we fight back and defend that friend. But, where were our friends? Where were the people we voted for and whose job it is to represent us? Where were the people we counted on to look into those television cameras and say that they knew us and that we were not those things. Would it really be so hard in 2006 to say, "I have LGBT constituents--they are upstanding people, wonderful parents and they don't deserve to be treated as second-class citizens"?

Most of our friends were silent; maybe they were afraid. All I know for sure is that most of them were nowhere to be found and that some in our community were making excuses for them.

One other tidibit: his group's political action arm, he says, is planning to spend $200,000 this statewide election cycle. That's quite a bit, and could affect the politics of the issue of marriage, which is expected to emerge from the courts soon.

In an email to his board members obtained by The Politicker, the head of New York State's leading gay rights group describes Hillary Clinton as a "disappointment" on same-sex marraige, and suggests gays and lesbians stop giving money to her campaign.

In the February 10 email, marked "confidential," Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the influential, well-funded Empire State Pride Agenda, says he's refusing to "lend my name and sell tickets" to a gay-oriented fundraiser for Hillary's reelection.

"Let me begin by stating that I believe Hillary Clinton has served the people of New York well in the United States Senate and that she deserves re-election," he writes. "My vote for Senator Clinton will come despite her regrettable statements on the issue of marriage for same-sex couples and her current support for DOMA."

She is, he writes "a complete disappointment and does not deserve an LGBT fundraiser."

Reached this afternoon, Van Capelle confirmed that he'd sent the email but declined to elaborate on it.

These are the shifting sands of the same-sex marriage issue. A few years ago, Howard Dean was a hero for signing separate-but-equal civil union legislation. A generation of Democrats is basically committed to protecting "traditional marriage," and trying to make up the difference in the politically active, donor-rich gay community with support for a wide range of domestic-partner benefits, along with legislation on everything from hate crimes to AIDS research. And increasingly, that's not enough for gay Democrats.

In that context, Van Capelle's letter marks something of a turning point for mainstream gay rights groups: Marriage is now make-or-break.

"This year Eliot Spitzer, David Patterson, Alan Hevesi, Andrew Cuomo, Mark Green, Sean Maloney and others are running for statewide office and are in favor of marriage equality for gays and lesbians. When our struggle is over, they will be recorded as being on the right side of history and as of now Hillary Clinton will not be with them," Van Capelle writes, adding:

"Supporting an LGBT fundraiser for Hillary Clinton will actually hurt our community. It will send a message to other elected officials that you can be working against us during this critical time and not suffer a negative pushback from the gay community. We have become a community that throws money at politicians and we demand nothing in return. And that's what we get -- nothing. It's the wrong message to send."

"If SpongeBob is a gay icon, someone needs to tell Barbra Streisand." - Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, in Newsweek.  read more »