25 June 2009

RUMOR: New York State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer Offends PFLAG Mom

So I heard a rumor the other day, from a fairly reliable source:

New York State's Senator Suzi Oppenheimer (D-Mamaroneck), who has been in the same office since 1984, and who is supposed to be a friend and supporter of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, recently told off a PFLAG (that's Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians And Gays) mother. Quoth she,

YOU PEOPLE need to take care of this!

Now just what "this"refers to, my memory is unclear. So perhaps those who are closer to the source know more about what this is all about, and why this supposed friend of the LGBT community is (a) referring to us as "YOU PEOPLE" and (b) telling us to take care of a problem when one of her constituents came to her for assistance?

I searched high and low on the web and couldn't find mention of this; however, I am 100% certain of the reliability and veracity of my source. Thus, perhaps some of the people in the Westchester County PFLAG chapter who know about this can speak up and provide more details about this incident?

More and more these days, the LGBT community is finding out that its supposed "friends" are anything but....

4 comments:

  1. Dear Readers of Peters Place:

    I am responding to the blog posting from June 25th concerning my support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.

    I am a co-sponsor, vocal and long-time supporter of the marriage equality legislation, S. 4401 sponsored by Senator Tom Duane. I have never wavered in my support for passage of the marriage equality legislation and am working to see S. 4401 passed into law this year. I am working closely with Senator Duane who says “Suzi is one of the best friends to our community.”

    I have been a critic of the unacceptable legislative stalemate now taking place in the Senate. No legislation has passed on any topic in two weeks. This impasse has not diminished my support or resolve to bring S. 4401 to a vote.

    I urge readers of this blog to contact their State Senators to win additional support.


    Suzi Oppenheimer
    State Senator

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  2. Peter, you have no right to speak on behalf of PFLAG. They are very capable of speaking for themselves and it borsders on offensive that you take on the role of spokesperson.

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  3. In related news, I heard SOMEONE said something like "Not that there's anything WRONG with that." The "that" in this case in unclear at this time, but whoever said it has a LOT of explaining to do. Stay tuned.

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  4. Peter -- for the record, I don't know Sen. Oppenheimer, have never met her and I don't even live in New York.

    But I do work in politics, and have spent a lot of time working in legislatures. Obviously, not having heard the conversation, I can't know what was said.

    But I can tell you that I can think of a whole host of reasons that someone might say something like "you people need to take care of this" and it wouldn't be offensive in the slightest.

    It could have been a P-FLAG member who was "off-message." It could be that Sen. Oppenheimer was just about to land another vote for our side and somebody at P-FLAG was making it more difficult.

    Whenever coalitions come together to get legislation passed, they bring their individual strengths and weaknesses to the table. The work gets divvied up because there are some things that one party can do effectively that another can't. And one of the consequences of that is that sometimes one person looks at another on the team and says, "This is something you need to handle because (Person X) isn't going to listen to me."

    Given what I've seen here regarding Sen. Oppenheimer's support for our community, my inclination would be to give her the benefit of the doubt.

    Just my two cents -- like I said, I don't live in New York and don't know the people involved in this.

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