Christine Quinn Was Supposed To Be NYC’s First Gay Mayor. Why Did She Lose So Big?
Christine Quinn was supposed to be New York City’s first woman mayor, and first gay or lesbian mayor. Now, it’s all but certain Bill de Blasio will be the Big Apple’s next leader. Quinn didn’t even come in second in yesterday’s Democratic primary — she came in third, with just 15.5 percent of the vote.
Quinn is 47, a lesbian, female, white, and lives in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. She is a college graduate, Christian, and I’m sure has many other wonderful attributes.
She was endorsed by practically everyone.
OK, not exactly, but Quinn got endorsements from the New York Times, Gloria Steinem, Sandra Fluke, and even George Takei. “Over 100 Groups and Community Leaders have Endorsed Christine Quinn,” her website says.
But that wasn’t enough.
If anyone is screaming homophobia or discrimination, by the way, they should leave now.
“LGBT politicos are in deep denial if they don’t in fact see New York’s mayoral race as a harbinger of what the future brings, in New York and throughout the country,” writes Michelangelo Signorile, the Editor-at-large at the Huffington Post’s Gay Voices. In “Christine Quinn and the Maturing of the LGBT Vote,” Signorile notes:
“This race was actually a reflection of the advances that the LGBT community has made in New York, with LGBT voters rejecting simplistic identity politics and voting on much broader issues affecting them and all New Yorkers.”
Signorile issues a strong warning too.
I do want to say that those LGBT leaders of groups based in Washington, D.C., that raised lots of money for Quinn and are now lamenting her loss — and blaming LGBT New Yorkers for abandoning her — are insulting the well-informed, politically active LGBT voters of New York, and it will only cause further backlash against them if they continue. They’re also tone-deaf to the fact that the majority of LGBT people in this city, like the larger population, are people of color and have other priorities as well, including ending Bloomberg’s stop-and-frisk policy, which became central in the campaign.
In fact, we all have many other priorities in addition to protecting our rights as LGBT people. In the past, LGBT people in New York City often couldn’t afford to focus on other issues because our health care, our safety, our homes, our jobs, and our relationships were on the line; as LGBT people, we were not protected from discrimination. And while homophobia is far from dead — evidenced by the recent string of brutal anti-LGBT violence in New York — we can also look to other issues that are important to us and our neighbors. That’s progress. It represents a maturation of the LGBT vote in New York, and, in time, it will likely happen across the country.
Personally, I look at the Quinn race as I look at our readership and this site. LGBT people are full-fledged human beings, with the same responsibilities and desires, the same challenges and cares as every other American. Our challenges may at times be much harder — we still have no ENDA, and most LGBT Americans still cannot marry — but we’re all human beings leading challenging, multi-dimensional lives. That’s why we write about progressive politics here, not just LGBT issues.
Finally, a look at the Democratic primary’s exit polls from the New York Times, which asked 15 questions of voters, including demographic information, reveals a few fascinating facts.
Quinn won none of the groups. Not the LGBT vote. Not the women’s vote, not the Manhattan vote, not the college graduates’ vote. None.
de Blasio won the votes of men and women, every age group, every education group, every religious group, every income group, and whites. Both de Blasio and Thompson took 42 percent of votes of African-Americans.
Nine percent of those polled said they were LGBT. That number is in reality likely higher as many won’t answer that question, or will not publicly identify as LGBT.
And here’s the shocker. de Blasio won the LGBT vote, with 47 percent. Quinn came in second with 34 percent.
By the way, this isn’t a Monday morning quarterback bashing of Christine Quinn. Whatever your position on Christine Quinn, and I know many of our readers do not support her, she has served our community and our city well, in many regards.
She deserves our respect and our thanks.
I just thought these numbers were fascinating.
Now, assuming de Blasio becomes our mayor, he damned well better do a great job — including protecting the LGBT community from New York City’s increasing hate crime violence — which is how Quinn got her start.
Image: Christine Quinn last night conceding the NYC mayoral race. Photo by Josh Robin, via Twitter.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
