National
Fire Island continues post-Sandy recovery
Gay business owners prepare for new season after storm


Crews continue to reconstruct the Pavilion nightclub in Fire Island Pines, N.Y., after a Nov. 2011 fire destroyed it. (Photo courtesy of FIP Ventures)
More than four months after Superstorm Sandy devastated the New York and New Jersey coastline, residents and business owners on Fire Island continue to prepare for the upcoming season.
Diane Romano, president of the Cherry Grove Community Association, told the Washington Blade on Tuesday the beachfront dunes that had been damaged during Sandy have begun to rebuild because of dune fencing the hamlet installed immediately after the storm.
The storm surge that reached nearly 14 feet in parts of New York City and Long Island flooded dozens of bay front homes, damaged a number of boardwalks and destroyed beach accesses. In spite of this damage, Romano stressed Cherry Grove weathered Sandy relatively well compared to other Fire Island communities.
“The people of Cherry Grove seem to be thankful and looking forward to a great season,” she said.
Jay Pagano, president of the Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association, said “necessary repairs” to the harbor are underway. He said the resort’s marina will be “up and running” by April 15, and debris removal will be completed by the end of this month.
Construction on the Pavilion, a nightclub that burned to the ground during a November 2011 fire that destroyed several other businesses in the Fire Island Pines commercial district, continues. It is slated to open later this spring in time to commemorate the gay resort’s 60th anniversary.
“The new Pines Pavilion complies to a heightened [Federal Emergency Management Agency] sea level, and none of the crucial elements of the building were touched by water,” Matthias Hollwich of Hollwich Kushner Architects, which designed the building, said. “Thankfully the foundations are deep and strong enough to easily withstand Sandy. The only challenge that we experienced was a delay in construction.”
The storm washed several oceanfront homes in Davis Park, a hamlet that is roughly two miles east of Fire Island Pines, out to sea. Dozens of others along the 34-mile long barrier island east of New York City also suffered damage.
The surge also caused numerous overwashes and at least three breaches — including one on the eastern end of Fire Island through which water continues to flow between the ocean and the Great South Bay.
The debris removal process had been delayed because of controversy over the bidding process through which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded the contract. The National Park Service’s announcement last month that it would begin to enforce a state law on some Fire Island beaches that bans public nudity, in part because Sandy destroyed the dunes that had obstructed nude sunbathers, sparked outrage among some. It does not, however, apply to Fire Island Pines or Cherry Grove.
‘We’re still kind of homeless’
Gay Staten Island residents with whom the Blade spoke roughly a month after Sandy made landfall continue to struggle to recover from the storm.
Up to six feet of water inundated Wayne Steinman and Sal Iacullo’s oceanfront townhouse on Father Capodanno Boulevard in the borough’s Midland Beach neighborhood during Sandy. The couple continues to live with Ianullo’s parents in Brooklyn as they try to repair their home.
Contractors have replaced the condominium’s back and side walls. A new furnace and hot water heater have been installed, but Steinman said he cannot begin the bulk of the needed structural repairs until he receives a payout from his insurance company.
“It’s really very, very frustrating,” Steinman said. “We’re still kind of homeless.”
Allison Galdorisi and Claire Watson fled their home in the Cedar Grove neighborhood of Staten Island during the height of the storm as several feet of water inundated the area.
Galdorisi told the Blade on Wednesday she and her wife “cleaned and dried the house out really quickly,” but the couple continues to rent an apartment in Midland Beach. The women are considering lifting their home to meet new FEMA flood standards, or even accepting a buyout that would take more than a year to complete.
“We’re just stuck,” Galdorisi said. “We’re pretty much out of shock and going into this new shock of not knowing what’s the best thing to do.”
Staten Island resident Michele Karlsberg, who is lesbian comedian Kate Clinton’s publicist, coordinated volunteer efforts in the borough in the weeks after Sandy.
She said her mother will move back into her apartment in the borough’s Ocean Breeze neighborhood that had eight feet of water inside it after the storm on March 15. Karlsberg added her sister has spent $30,000 so far to repair her home.
“The zone looks the same as if it was day one,” she said.
Sandy also inundated the Ali Forney Center’s drop-in center for homeless LGBT youth near the Hudson River in Manhattan’s West Chelsea neighborhood.
Gay MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts and his husband, Patrick Abner, were among those who helped the organization raise funds to recoup some of their losses and to help pay for some of the renovations to a second drop-in center that opened in Harlem less than two months after the storm. The new facility does not yet have showers or medical facilities for the 60 young people who access it each day, but Ali Forney Center Executive Director Carl Siciliano stressed he feels his organization has recovered well from the storm.
“Because of that really strong support, we were able to pretty quickly get back on our feet,” he said.
Federal Government
UPenn erases Lia Thomas’s records as part of settlement with White House
University agreed to ban trans women from women’s sports teams

In a settlement with the Trump-Vance administration announced on Tuesday, the University of Pennsylvania will ban transgender athletes from competing and erase swimming records set by transgender former student Lia Thomas.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found the university in violation of Title IX, the federal rights law barring sex based discrimination in educational institutions, by “permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”
The statement issued by University of Pennsylvania President J. Larry Jameson highlighted how the law’s interpretation was changed substantially under President Donald Trump’s second term.
“The Department of Education OCR investigated the participation of one transgender athlete on the women’s swimming team three years ago, during the 2021-2022 swim season,” he wrote. “At that time, Penn was in compliance with NCAA eligibility rules and Title IX as then interpreted.”
Jameson continued, “Penn has always followed — and continues to follow — Title IX and the applicable policy of the NCAA regarding transgender athletes. NCAA eligibility rules changed in February 2025 with Executive Orders 14168 and 14201 and Penn will continue to adhere to these new rules.”
Writing that “we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules” in place while Thomas was allowed to compete, the university president added, “We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”
“Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the university for future generations of female athletes.”
Under former President Joe Biden, the department’s Office of Civil Rights sought to protect against anti-LGBTQ discrimination in education, bringing investigations and enforcement actions in cases where school officials might, for example, require trans students to use restrooms and facilities consistent with their birth sex or fail to respond to peer harassment over their gender identity.
Much of the legal reasoning behind the Biden-Harris administration’s positions extended from the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County, which found that sex-based discrimination includes that which is based on sexual orientation or gender identity under Title VII rules covering employment practices.
The Trump-Vance administration last week put the state of California on notice that its trans athlete policies were, or once were, in violation of Title IX, which comes amid the ongoing battle with Maine over the same issue.
New York
Two teens shot steps from Stonewall Inn after NYC Pride parade
One of the victims remains in critical condition

On Sunday night, following the annual NYC Pride March, two girls were shot in Sheridan Square, feet away from the historic Stonewall Inn.
According to an NYPD report, the two girls, aged 16 and 17, were shot around 10:15 p.m. as Pride festivities began to wind down. The 16-year-old was struck in the head and, according to police sources, is said to be in critical condition, while the 17-year-old was said to be in stable condition.
The Washington Blade confirmed with the NYPD the details from the police reports and learned no arrests had been made as of noon Monday.
The shooting took place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, mere feet away from the most famous gay bar in the city — if not the world — the Stonewall Inn. Earlier that day, hundreds of thousands of people marched down Christopher Street to celebrate 55 years of LGBTQ people standing up for their rights.
In June 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn, members of the LGBTQ community pushed back, sparking what became known as the Stonewall riots. Over the course of two days, LGBTQ New Yorkers protested the discriminatory policing of queer spaces across the city and mobilized to speak out — and throw bottles if need be — at officers attempting to suppress their existence.
The following year, LGBTQ people returned to the Stonewall Inn and marched through the same streets where queer New Yorkers had been arrested, marking the first “Gay Pride March” in history and declaring that LGBTQ people were not going anywhere.
New York State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, whose district includes Greenwich Village, took to social media to comment on the shooting.
“After decades of peaceful Pride celebrations — this year gun fire and two people shot near the Stonewall Inn is a reminder that gun violence is everywhere,” the lesbian lawmaker said on X. “Guns are a problem despite the NRA BS.”
New York
Zohran Mamdani participates in NYC Pride parade
Mayoral candidate has detailed LGBTQ rights platform

Zohran Mamdani, the candidate for mayor of New York City who pulled a surprise victory in the primary contest last week, walked in the city’s Pride parade on Sunday.
The Democratic Socialist and New York State Assembly member published photos on social media with New York Attorney General Letitia James, telling followers it was “a joy to march in NYC Pride with the people’s champ” and to “see so many friends on this gorgeous day.”
“Happy Pride NYC,” he wrote, adding a rainbow emoji.
Mamdani’s platform includes a detailed plan for LGBTQ people who “across the United States are facing an increasingly hostile political environment.”
His campaign website explains: “New York City must be a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people, but private institutions in our own city have already started capitulating to Trump’s assault on trans rights.
“Meanwhile, the cost of living crisis confronting working class people across the city hits the LGBTQIA+ community particularly hard, with higher rates of unemployment and homelessness than the rest of the city.”
“The Mamdani administration will protect LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers by expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide, making NYC an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city, and creating the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.”
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