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In a meeting last week with the editorial board of the Queens Tribune, Elizabeth Crowley, a candidate for an open City Council seat who won the endorsement of the Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club of Queens, stated her opposition to marriage equality for same-sex couples. Crowley was joined at the editorial board meeting by the other three candidates in the race, including Charles Ober, an out gay Ridgewood civic activist who is the former board president of the Queens Pride House, the borough's LGBT community center. The election, which takes place on June 3, is a nonpartisan contest for the 30th District seat representing Ridgewood, Glendale, and Middle Village.
The gay club made its pick of Crowley despite the fact that she did not answer its candidate questionnaire, did not attend its endorsement meeting, and sent a representative who could not answer when asked her position on marriage equality or transgender rights. Asked about Crowley's statement to the Tribune, Larry Menzie, the club's communications chair, said, "It's surprising because she did send a representative to the club and she showed interest in getting our endorsement. I'm not going to try to minimize that." Menzie then added, "It doesn't make Charlie Ober any better of a candidate. We're not comfortable with Ober's relationship to our club."
Menzie and Daniel Dromm, a Democratic district leader who was a founder of the club, both earlier criticized Ober for his participation in a short-lived rival LGBT club in the borough. Dromm, who is running for the 25th District Council seat in Jackson Heights next year, acknowledged that the club pressed Ober on how supportive he had been of Dromm's work on behalf of the LGBT community, but argued that the questions posed a fair test of the 30th District candidate's own dedication to the borough's gay community.
A blog posting charged that Crowley's campaign had reneged on its promise to feature the Queens gay club's logo in its campaign literature. Dromm volleyed back on that charge, saying that ads Ober took out in Queens newspapers were "whitewashed" of any reference to the fact he is gay or enjoys the endorsement of the Stonewall Democrats of New York City.
Crowley is the cousin of Congressman Joe Crowley, the head of the county Democratic Party, and a featured speaker at a political fundraiser for Dromm prior to the Queens LGBT Pride Parade on June 1. Joe Crowley is a supporter of same-sex marriage.
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