Antonio Pagán, 1st gay Latino NYC Councilmember, dead at age 50

I must have met the man more than a few times but, for the life of me, I can't remember a single encounter. I wasn't living in New York when he became the first openly gay Latino man to be elected to the New York City Council in 1991, but I certainly was involved in city politics by the time he left the Council in 1997, and had become well-aware of his notorious reputation.

Last week his name crossed my mind as in "Whatever happened to..." Now comes word that Antonio Pagán (right) died on Sunday at the age of 50 at Beth Israel Medical Center of a heart attack.

You might think that the Latino LGBT community would be mourning his loss and declaring him the Harvey Milk of our generation but let's say that: 1) Aside from past articles archived at The New York Times there is little online material to make others aware of his historic run for office (I mean, was he the first openly gay Latino to be elected to political office in the United States?); and 2) Hm, how can I put this gently? By all accounts he was a brilliant man but also an asshole who held petty grudges against enemies and pushed policies that were an anathema to the people he represented (not that I can't think of a few people in political office that fit that description).

Paul DeRienzo put it best when he wrote the following in response to a NY Times' City Room blog report on Pagán's passing:

Antonio Pagan was a brilliant man, but also a petty and personally vindictive one who did not embody the values of the majority of residents of the Lower East Side. He was an advocate for landlords and big business and a close associate of Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Mr. Pagan’s decisions closed community gardens, community centers and evicted residents, while driving up rents in what is still fundamentally a poor and struggling neighborhood. He was also directly involved in instigating a police riot in Tompkins Square Park on August 6th, 1988 that caused hundreds of injuries to local residents. That riot happened because Mr. Pagan and others made decisions about the rights of homeless people living in the park in secret, while conspiring with police officials behind the back of the community. Mr. Pagan will not be missed as a political leader in our neighborhood, but most feel sorrow that a young man should be cut down in his prime. My condolences to his family, but to all the poor people who suffered because of Mr. Pagan’s desire to have as he once said "my piece of the rock,” they deserve condolence as well.

At that site, some defend him but most are vitriolic in the hate they spew against Pagán (he would probably rejoice in the fact that his actions still bring so much venom a decade after his City Council stint).

As for the cause of death: There is some online chatter that Pagán might have died after a longtime battle with HIV/AIDS which certainly is pure speculation at this point in time. But if that is the case, and those close to him are uncomfortable with disclosing his HIV status, what does that say about a man who was among the founding board members of the still-existing nonprofit organization Hispanic AIDS Forum? Or - if it is true that he had been battling HIV/AIDS - was it his personal wish that if he died others would not find out that he was HIV positive?

If that is the case, it certainly honors Pagán's conflicting personae, but it also speaks to how in a certain segments of the Latino community - even among openly gay folk - AIDS is still silenced.

Interestingly, since Pagán was elected to the City Council representing the Lower East Side of Manhattan, his successors have also been of Puerto Rican descent and openly gay. First came Margarita López who held the seat from 1998 to 2005 before she sought higher office when term limits came into effect, followed by Rosie Méndez who currently holds the seat.

Related:

• Antonio Pagán 1959-2009 (Village Voice Runnin' Scared Blog, Jan. 27, 2009)
• Antonio Pagán: R.I.P. (The Neighborhood Retail Alliance, Jan. 27, 2009)
• The Blackwell City Reader (Excerpt, Google Books, Published in 2002)
• Re-Representing the City (Excerpt, Google Books, Published in 1996)
• Orthodoxy vs. Whitman, Pagán (Excerpt, Google Books, New York Magazine, Sept. 6. 1993)

My New York: "Girl, you did not just steal our rights. DID YOU. Seriously?"

NOTE: My entire photo album of today's events in NYC here, a run down of events in other cities at Towleroad and media coverage at Chris Crain's blog.It was supposed to be a rainy day but the rain didn't arrive until a few moments ago. Instead, for what was one of hundreds of demonstrations throughout the United States against California's Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage, the sun shined brightly on the thousands of people that descended upon City Hall in Manhattan. I haven't seen crowd estimates but overheard a few people say that they thought it was a larger crowd the one on Wednesday (which drew 7,500 to 15,000 - depending on who you ask).

SIGNS OF THE DAY!

Best sign of the day! "Girl, you did not just steal our rights DID YOU? Seriously" (Update: Vinney has the T-shirt here , his flickr page is here).

Runner up: "Prop 8 Kills Kittens" (those on the East Coast who have seen the recent Time Warner commercials will get the joke).

Runner up: "Bisexuals won't settle for 1/2 equal"

Runner up: "If homosexuality is a disease, let's call in QUEER to work. 'Hello,can't work today, STILL QUEER"

SEEN!!!

Heather Matarazzo: There were the usual array of speakers including openly gay Councilmembers Christine Quinn and Rosie Mendez and the openly gay Assemblymember Danny O'Donnell but the one that truly moved my cynical heart was Heather Matarazzo (above). Part of it was that I felt star-struck (I have been in love with Heather ever since I saw her performance in Todd Solondz' "Welcome to the Dollhouse").

But no. I think what struck me of Wednesday's and today's demos were how unlike other demos they were (in terms of drawing record numbers of chi-chi gays - who usually never get caught at a political demo thingie - as well as the throngs of younger people who seem to have engaged in ways that I have never seen).

It's the Facebook generation (or what Rex calls Stonewall 2.0) and for some reason Heather seemed to fully embody the moment. So when she looked at the thousands of people in front of her and choked-up with tears as she said "I love you all" I couldn't help but tear up a bit as well. Yes, old cynical me.

Wilson Cruz: A while back I checked in with the Obama campaign and urged them to recruit Wilson Cruz for their media-friendly events in California if their goal was to attract a younger Latino gay following. When pundits were questioning whether Obama could draw the Latino vote, Wilson was out there challenging that notion and I was glad to have tried to connect him to the campaign. Glad to see him in the crowd although I didn't have a chance to say hi.

Emanuel Xavier was there as well though and got to address the crowd as well (pic courtesy of Leo Toro). Yay! (Wait! I detect a wardrobe change!).

John Norris: Oh, and yeah, MTV's John Norris was just behind me (above in shades).

Matt Foreman: The fabu-tastic Matt Foreman was in his old stomping grounds as well (he now lives in California). That's me on the left, him on the right. Don't mind my spazzy smile: Francisco De Leon, Matt's husband, was making lewd motions at me to get me to smile.

PJ, Steven and the hubby: I hung out all day long with Steven (in the white shirt), PJ (in the cheap leather jacket), and Raul (the hubby, in stripes). Good times.

And then there was flower girl and the ACT UP guy!

Yes, peoplez, it was all about love.

ACT UP guy was holding on to a banner that read:
You might remember a similar banner led the march down Broadway on Wednesday except that one read "God Loves Gay Marriage."

The creator of both banners is none other than rainbow flag creator Gilbert Baker. Perhaps between Wednesday and today he read this piece in POZ magazine by Peter Staley?

Related:

• Write my name in the book of love (Joe.My.God)
• Stonewall 2.0: 25,000 in San Diego (Rex Wockner)
• Wanda Skyes comes out at the Las Vegas demo!! (Vegas Happens Here)
• San Diego: 20,000 to 25,000 (Mike Tidmus)
  

City Politics: Back Into the Fray

Top: Carlos Macias of GLAAD, Pedro Julio Serrano of Freedom to Marry, yours truly of Blabbeando (photo by Michael T. Luongo); Middle: NYS Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, NYC Counclilmembers David Yassky, NYS Senator Tom Duane, NYS Comngressmember Carolyne Malone, NYC Council Speaker Chris Quinn, NYC Councilmember Rosie Mendez, Empire State Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van Capelle; LGBT Community Services Center Director Richard Burns, NYS Assemblymember Danny O'Donnell; Bottom: The leading Democratic candidate for New York State Governor and current State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer.

Ok, so politically and even - to some degree - socially, I have been out of the loop for a few months now, considering that I used to attend every single LGBT political meeting in the city (or so it seemed). But after I stepped off as treasurer of the Out People of Color Political Action Club (though I am still part of the executive committee as a member-at-large), I decided to take a breather.

So at the big two LGBT political events I attended Wednesday night at the LGBT Community Services Center (a community event to salute newly-appointed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and a Stonewall Democrats endorsement meeting), I had this weird feeling of stepping back into the fray. Nicely, it also gave me a chance to see friends I hadn't seen in a while (Colin Robinson, Michael T. Luongo, Ellen Ensig-Brodsky, Ronnie Billini among many others), but also have an opportunity to give personal thanks to Ana Oliveira, the departing Executive Director at Gay Men's Health Crisis, who supported me and some of my activities during her tenure as the agency's leader, and staff and members of the Board of Directors of the Empire State Pride Agenda, whose board I also left last year.

The Quinn event drew hundreds of people, quite more than I was expecting, and had an appropriately celebratory tone (I'm always amazed when throngs show up for a purely political event). She entered the room to tremendous applause and almost could not leave the place as many wanted to shake her hand and congratulate her personally (I was among them). In perhaps the most touching moment of the night, NYS Senator Tom Duane seemed visibly embarrassed when Christine spoke warmly and at length about his long-time mentorship. Tom tried to shush the crowd but the crowd wouldn't have any of it and also gave him an extended applause.

I was there with Carlos Macias of GLAAD and Pedro Julio Serrano of Freedom to Marry, recent arrivals in New York City, and stood at the back of the room with OutPOCPAC's Gerard Cabrera, who gave Carlos and Pedro Julio the run-down of who was who at both events. Pedro Julio, who knew newly elected and openly-lesbian Councilmember Rosie Mendez, officially introduced me to her. In his blog, Pedro Julio writes about his emotions on Wednesday night and, particularly, about seeing Rosie on the podium and the meaning of a gift he gave her on the night she won the council race. It's a moving piece and, if you understand Spanish, you should read it here. Call me crazy but I was actually moved to see these two younger Latino gay men from other latitudes be so entranced by city politics.

For pure political intrigue and fireworks, the Stonewall Democrats endorsement meeting almost turned into a free-for-all as invited speakers and candidates not scheduled to speak fought for podium time. As Jossip put it "For once, it wasn't the gays who queened out."

But Jossip wasn't the only one who took notice: The New York Times has ran two articles on the fall-out, one yesterday on the state attorney race and one today on comments made that night by Andrew Cuomo.

All in all though, the night also drew an amazing number of people, and I have to give kudos to Stonewall Democrats President Dirk McCall for managing to keep the calm in the midst of flying elbows. At the end of the night, Eliot Spitzer walked away with the first of what I predict will be a large number of endorsements from the City's LGBT political clubs.

Political Updates - You Get to Dance Salsa Too and a Book on Bloomberg

More local politics, please don't yawn!

Salsa Al: Those Ferrer camp salsa dancing ads, while not heavy on content, have been fun to watch. Particularly that Al Sharpton one.

Well, now it's YOUR turn to send the Ferrer campaign your own salsa dancing videos (actually it can be any type of music you like to dance to) by sending your mpegs to: info@ferrer2005.com - Aparently they will be posting the best ones on the Ferrer campaign website. Do it fast, though, kiddies, elections are next week!

Buddies: Unfortunately, any good-will that the ads might have elicited got eclipsed by the release of a totally different ad called "Buddies" on the same day, which the New York Post trumpeted up on its first page by implying that it featured a cartoon Bloomberg giving a cartoon handjob to a cartoon George W. Bush (!) which the Bloomberg campaign immediately called 'disgusting' (even if the actual ad doesn't show anything close to that).

I did think that the ad crossed a line and I did send it out to a couple of friends to see if it striked them as a bit, um, problematic, not to say homophobic, but they both thought it was a funny take on the Jib Jab ads that ran during the Bush-Kerry race but that was about it. I almost blogged about my feelings about the ad but let it go. Well, the Post cover page story came out the next day. Must mean I'm thinking along the lines of the editors at the New York Post (and that's kinda scary!).

Catch up to the visitors from Puerto Rico: As for the LGBT Puerto Rican contingent for Ferrer? Well, they will be here this weekend. You have a chance to meet them as they campaign for openly lesbian Democratic councilmember nominee Rosie Mendez (running to gain the District 2 seat vacated by Margarita Lopez) on Saturday morning at 11:30am in the Lower East Side. Fernando Ferrer will join them a little later. Interested? Call Rosie Mendez' campaign office for more info: (212) 677-1077.

The Book on Bloomberg: Finally, for local political wonks, there has always been a rumor of a strategy book used by Mark Green to attack Bloomberg in his failed 2001 mayoral campaign. Well, rejoice! Now, thanks to The Politicker, you can also get a hold on an actual copy!