Mayor Cory Booker on LGBT newark
Last Updated on Tuesday, 29 September 2009 12:33 Written by Taylor Siluwé Tuesday, 22 September 2009 12:57
NEWSBRIEF
Early into his administration, Newark’s Mayor Cory Booker raised the first rainbow flag over City Hall. The backlash was swift and palpable, exemplified when a Latino clergymen, as Booker put it, seemed to want to “rip a new orifice in my body.” But if there is a sign that a change in perceptions as to LGBT issues is happening in “Brick City,” the NJ Devils hockey team hosting a brunch for the New Jersey Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association last month at the Prudential Center is it.
In a Q&A session over an assortment of fresh fruit and Danish with representatives from Newark Pride Alliance, Liberation in Truth Unity Fellowship Church (which touts God’s love is for all) and others, a shorts-clad Booker assured those present that in “five to seven years, the city of Newark will have a compelling story to tell” regarding LGBT issues.
While Mayor Booker expressed concern over President Obama’s lack of speed in fulfilling certain campaign promises – such as repealing DOMA and putting an end to the military’s failed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy – and though he has not had contact with “high level” Obama administration officials, he made it clear that he wasn’t comfortable “casting judgment” on the 8-month old administration, and that he had “a lot of sympathy for what they’re going through.”
His legacy wish for his administration is to be one that improved the lives of LGBT youth of color, which is why plans are under way for an after-school program, assigning a police liaison to the LGBT community, and he’s also put in place an LGBT commission, candidates for which will be voted on by the city council soon. Booker, a first-term mayor – who, like NJ Governor Jon Corzine, is a staunch advocate of equality for all - believes that “government cannot legislate love, but it can [and should] legislate protecting people.”