National
Christine Quinn seeks to be mayor of ‘all 8.4 million’ New Yorkers
Democrat criticizes Anthony Weiner for “grandpa” comment at AARP forum

Openly gay New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is leading the Democratic Primary for mayor of America’s largest city. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn on Wednesday said she is running for mayor because she wants to ensure New Yorkers have the same opportunities her grandparents had when they immigrated from Ireland a century ago.
“This is the greatest city in the world,” she told the Washington Blade. “I want to be mayor because I want to make sure the power and the possibility that existed for them exists in greater amounts for New Yorkers in our city and all the immigrants who are coming here every day.”
Quinn, 47, remains the frontrunner among her Democratic challengers going into the September 10 primary.
A Quinnipiac University poll released on July 29 shows Quinn leading New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio by a 27-21 percent margin among likely Democratic primary voters. Former New York City Comptroller William Thompson, Jr., came in third with 20 percent, while former Congressman Anthony Weiner garnered 16 percent.
Quinn would become the city’s first female and first openly LGBT mayor if voters elect her to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg in Gracie Mansion in November.
“We’re running to be the mayor of all 8.4 million people of all genders and all sexual orientations,” Quinn told the Blade, referring to a person whom she said whispered in her ear while on the campaign trail that her decision to run for mayor helped them come out. She said a man whom she hugged during June’s Brooklyn Pride had tears in his eyes. “It isn’t lost on me, the historic nature of this.”
Quinn also referenced her wife, Kim Catullo, whom she married in May 2012, as she discussed her campaign and the fact New York is a global financial capital.
“The top CEOs from all across the world, the leading international figures meet with the mayor of the city of New York,” Quinn said. “Their briefing will always talk about Christine Quinn and the wife.”
Quinn receives gay backing, criticism
The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund; the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City; Empire State Pride Agenda and Edith Windsor, the Manhattan widow who successfully challenged the Defense of Marriage Act before the U.S. Supreme Court, are among those who have endorsed Quinn. She is also scheduled to attend two campaign fundraisers on Fire Island later this month.
In spite of this support, Quinn continues to face criticism from some LGBT New Yorkers.
She faced widespread criticism from LGBT Democrats and others in 2008 when she supported the extension of term-limits that allowed Bloomberg and other city officials, including herself, to run for a third-term. Quinn earlier in the same year also acknowledged a City Council slush fund appropriated more than $17 million to community organizations that did not exist since 2001.
Brooklyn attorney Garfield Heslop in June filed a complaint with the New York City Campaign Finance Board that asked it to investigate Quinn over more than $20,000 in contributions her campaign received from donors in Houston, San Diego and Chicago after she attended Victory Fund events in the three cities in 2011 and 2012.
Quinn’s spokesperson Mike Morey defended the campaign’s actions in a statement he sent to the Blade after news of Heslop’s complaint broke.
“The question I think really is about what I have done with my time in office,” Quinn said in response to the Blade’s request for comment on criticisms she continues to receive from Allen Roskoff, co-founder of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club and others. She pointed out she has balanced eight budgets on time as speaker of the City Council and stopped Bloomberg from laying off 4,100 teachers. “Everyone who is running for mayor was opposed to it. They may have even gone to press conferences. They may have attended a rally. I’m the one who stopped those layoffs. I’m the one who kept every firehouse and every library open during the recession. That’s a record of results during my time as speaker.”
Quinn also criticized Weiner for referring to Republican mayoral candidate George McDonald as “grandpa” during an American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) forum in Manhattan on Tuesday.
“There’s no reason for name calling, ever,” she said. “When people in public life are speaking of senior citizens, they should do it with respect and gratitude and not in a derogatory way.”
Quinn categorized the former congressman’s campaign as a “circus” in a statement she released last month after revelations that Weiner had sent lewd text messages to women after he resigned from Congress in 2011. She stopped short of saying he should drop out of the race.
“Anthony Weiner has clearly decided to run,” Quinn told the Blade. “Now it’s a question for the voters.”
Quinn weighs in on hate crimes, Russia
Quinn, who was executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project from 1996 to 1999, told the Blade that as mayor she would set a goal of the five boroughs “becoming a hate crime-free city” through working with the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force, expanding the city’s anti-bullying curriculum and partnering with faith-based organizations. Her comments come less than three months after Elliott Morales allegedly shot Mark Carson, a gay man from Brooklyn, to death in Greenwich Village during what the NYPD has classified as a hate crime.
“That’s the work we have to keep doing until we get to the place where we get to zero as the statistics of hate crimes against any community,” Quinn said, speaking to the Blade shortly after she and other officials expressed outrage over racist graffiti that defaced a statue of Jackie Robinson in Brooklyn.
Quinn stopped short of calling for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, over the country’s LGBT rights record. She praised President Obama’s decision to cancel a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that had been scheduled to take place in Moscow ahead of next month’s G-20 summit in St. Petersburg.
“We all need to focus immediately on doing everything we can as Americans and as part of a larger international community to change what is going on in Russia,” Quinn told the Blade. “We’ve all got to keep pushing to make change. It’s really a life and death issue.”
Arizona
Shooting outside gay bar in Ariz. leaves three dead
Tucson police investigating double murder-suicide as a hate crime
Three people were fatally shot outside a gay bar in Tucson, Ariz., early Monday morning, about a mile from the city’s nightlife district.
Police have said the shooting, which took place in the parking lot of Venture-N bar at 1239 N. 6th Ave., was likely a hate crime and a double murder-suicide following a verbal altercation.
The suspect, Ousman Ceesay, allegedly shot Vincent Anthony Siqueiros and Cameron Davis Capara while they were outside the club around 12:30 a.m. Monday.
Reports show Capara and Siqueiros were pronounced dead at the scene. Ceesay died after being taken to a local hospital with gunshot wounds.
Police have also said that Ceesay was carrying a list of LGBTQ businesses at the time of the shooting.
Arizona Public Media has said police are investigating the case as a hate crime because the suspect was carrying a note containing the names of multiple LGBTQ-associated businesses.
“I am deeply saddened that another senseless loss of life has happened in our community,” Tucson Police Chief Monica Prieto said in a statement. “Bias-based crimes are especially heinous and have no place in our community.”
According to Prieto, there is no imminent threat to the community, and the Tucson Police Department is working to provide extra protection to various LGBTQ businesses across town.
Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva, who represents the area, issued a statement condemning the act of violence, which appears to have been at least in part motivated by homophobia.
“I am disgusted and deeply saddened to learn of a targeted act of hate and the cold-blooded murder of two members of our LGBTQIA+ community, Vincent Siqueiros and Cameron Capara, at the Venture-N bar in Tucson last night. This horrific attack is a painful reminder that even in welcoming communities like Tucson, hate and violence against the LGBTQIA+ community still exist.”
“When that hate is combined with easy access to firearms, the consequences can be deadly. I am sick and tired of Congress refusing to lift a finger to protect our communities while, every day, dozens of people are shot and killed across the country. It does not have to be this way. The House of Representatives is returning to session this week, and our first action should be passing common-sense gun safety reforms that we know can save lives.”
Other federal lawmakers also condemned the shooting.
The Congressional Equality Caucus, which is made up of federal legislators advancing LGBTQ interests, issued a statement after news broke.
“Our hearts are with the friends and loved ones of the victims of this devastating attack outside a Tucson gay bar and with the Tucson LGBTQI+ community,” it said on X. “No one should fear violence because of who they are — and we’re going to continue fighting to build a world where no one does.”
The Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ organization in the country, released a statement following the shooting.
“We are heartbroken by the loss of Vincent Anthony Siqueiros and Cameron Davis Capara and our hearts are with their families, loved ones, and the entire Tucson LGBTQ+ community. Once again, we are reminded that gun violence robs people of their lives, destroys families, and devastates communities.”
A candlelight vigil honoring the victims is planned for Sept. 2 at 6:30 p.m. at Catalina Park in North Tucson.
Congress
HRC president campaigns for Chris Pappas in NH
Gay congressman running to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson on Sunday campaigned for U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) in New Hampshire.
Robinson traveled to Manchester, the state’s largest city, nine days before the Sept. 8 primary that will determine who will vie for retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)’s seat.
We’re hitting the pavement across New Hampshire to fight for a freer, fairer future for everyone.
Glad to have Human Rights Campaign President @KelleyJRobinson join us for a canvass launch in Manchester today. pic.twitter.com/XWCEaQxy4o
— Chris Pappas (@ChrisPappasNH) August 30, 2026
Former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, who represented New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate from 2003-2009, will face off against former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate from 2010-2013, in the Republican primary.
Karishma Manzur is among the Democrats challenging Pappas.
A poll the University of New Hampshire Survey Center released on Aug. 26 shows Sununu is ahead of Brown. The same survey shows Pappas ahead of Manzur and his other Democratic challengers.
The UNH Survey Center poll shows Sununu ahead of Pappas by a 45-43 percent margin if they were to face off in the general election. The margin of error is +/-2.1 percent.
Pappas would become the first openly gay man elected to the U.S. Senate if he were to win in November.
National
Milo Yiannopoulos deported to UK
ICE arrested far-right provocateur in New Orleans on Thursday
Editor’s note: The Department of Homeland Security on Saturday said Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported to the U.K.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday arrested far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.
A DHS spokesperson in a statement sent to the Washington Blade said ICE arrested Yiannopoulos, who they described as “an illegal alien from the United Kingdom,” at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
The DHS spokesperson said Yiannopoulos “legally entered the country” in New York on May 14, 2019.
“He chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws,” said the spokesperson.
The DHS spokesperson said an immigration judge on July 22 “issued a final order of removal” for Yiannopoulos “after failing to show up for his immigration hearing.” The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans on Friday reported Yiannopoulos is being held at an ICE detention center in Alexandria, La., which is about 200 miles northwest of the Crescent City.
“He will remain in ICE custody pending removal,” said the DHS spokesperson.
Yiannopoulos has, among other things, repeatedly targeted transgender people and Muslims.
The American Conservative Union, which organizes the annual Conversative Political Action Conference, in 2017 disinvited Yiannopoulos from speaking at that year’s CPAC after a video in which he appeared to condone sex between adults and underage boys emerged. Yiannopoulos subsequently resigned from Breitbart News, a far-right news website, where he had been a senior editor.
Yiannopoulos later that year married his boyfriend in Hawaii. The far-right provocateur in 2021 claimed he was an “ex-gay.”
The Australian government in 2019 banned Yiannopoulos from entering the country “on character grounds.” Yiannopoulos was also banned from Facebook, Twitter (now X), and other social media platforms.

The Times-Picayune reported Yiannopoulos “most recently worked for” Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.
The controversial rapper is scheduled to perform in New Orleans on Friday.
Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist who is close to President Donald Trump, has called for Yiannopoulos’s deportation. Loomer on Friday wrote on X that she “reported him to ICE and the FBI” after he “called for me to be assassinated.”
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