Queens lawmaker faces potential punishment for anti-LGBTQ+ remarks
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Queens City Councilmember Vickie Paladino is facing potential sanctions from the Speaker Adrienne Adams after she said that drag queens events in the city’s public schools are “grooming” children. File photo via Paladino/Twitter
By Jacob Kaye
A Queens City Councilmember may be facing sanctions after she went on an online screed, vowing to withhold funding from schools that host drag queen events last week.
Councilmember Vickie Paladino provoked widespread condemnation from her comments made in response to a New York Post story that said that $200,000 of taxpayer money was spent by the city last year on performances by the group Drag Queen Story Hour NYC, a nonprofit that aims to teach children “about gender diversity and all forms of difference to build empathy and give kids the confidence to express themselves.”
Posting to Twitter, Paladino, a Republican who represents a large portion of Northeast Queens, evoked language increasingly used by Republican politicians aiming to curtail LGBTQ+ rights throughout the country.
“Progressives may have no problem with child grooming and sexualization, but I do,” Paladino said. “This will not happen on my watch. Kids deserve a quality education free from political manipulation and sexual content.”
Though criticism in the hours following the tweet came mostly from LGBTQ+ members of the City Council, including Queens members Tiffany Cabán and Lynn Schulman, the speaker of the council, Adrienne Adams, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams were condemning the remarks by the end of the week.
"At a time when our LGBTQ+ communities are under increased attack across this country, we must use our education system to educate,” the mayor said. “The goal is not only for our children to be academically smart, but also emotionally intelligent. Drag storytellers, and the libraries and schools that support them, are advancing a love of diversity, personal expression, and literacy that is core to what our city embraces."
Speaker Adams said Thursday that her office was looking at potential disciplinary action to take against Paladino, who has been in hot water with the legislative body twice before during the nearly six months she’s been in office.
“The Council is looking into what further action may be warranted,” Speaker Adams said. “Any form of hate, including transphobia, has no place in this city, and certainly not in this Council.”
“I stand with all of my Council colleagues, LGBTQ+ communities, and New Yorkers in unequivocally denouncing Council Member Paladino’s repugnant views and statements against specific members of the Council and the trans community,” the speaker added. “A New Yorker’s choice of dress, gender expression or identity must be not only protected legally, but also against vile, hateful attacks.”
Over half of Paladino’s Queens colleagues in the council publicly condemned her remarks by Friday. During Thursday’s City Council meeting, a number of councilmembers spoke out against the tweets. Paladino told the Eagle that she walked out of the chambers during her colleagues’ remarks.
Queens City Councilmember Lynn Schulman (center) and Brooklyn Councilmember Crystal Hudson (right), both of whom are members of the council’s LGBTQ Caucus, denounced anti-LGTBQ+ remarks made by Councilmember Vicki Paladino on Thursday, June 16, 2022. John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit
Speaking with the Eagle Friday, Paladino said that after having a private conversation with the speaker, she wasn’t concerned about any potential sanctions.
“I think Adrienne and I will get through this just fine,” Paladino said. “I have the utmost respect for her, as she does for me.”
“We aired out our differences and I think we've met in the middle,” she added. “So, I think everything between Adrienne and myself going forward is going to be just fine.”
Paladino added that she stood by her comments despite the response from her colleagues.
“They are entitled to their opinion as I am to mine, and I hold no ill will against anybody,” Paladino said. “I'm a grown up and I deal with things in a grown up manner.”
More transgender and gender non-conforming people were killed in hate attacks in 2021 than any year since the Human Rights Campaign began tracking the attacks, the nonprofit says. Around 14 transgender and gender non-conforming people have been killed this year, the organization says.
Cabán said the rhetoric used by her Queens colleague could inspire violence against the LGBTQ+ community.
“Drag Story Hour NYC shows young, queer [New Yorkers] that they’re valid, that they truly belong,” Cabán tweeted. “Here’s a colleague likening it to child abuse, at a time when this ‘groomer’ rhetoric is fueling a wave of violence against queer folks."
In response to Cabán’s statement, Paladino said: “There are so many other issues that the city should be concentrating on, violence issues, that people are being attacked all the time. I think that's where Tiffany should be focusing her interest on, instead of defunding the police.”
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards on Friday doubled down on his efforts to partner with Drag Queens Story Hour NYC.
“There is so much more work ahead of us when it comes to fostering an inclusive education, like greatly expanding the teaching of LGBTQIA+ history in the classroom,” Richards said. “But I am deeply grateful to the Queens Public Library, our schools and other community organizations across our borough that participate in the Drag Queen Story Hour NYC initiative, which I will proudly continue to fund and support every single year.”
