Dromm defends tweet storm targeting women Council candidates on LGBTQ rights

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Photo by John McCarten/City Council Photography

Photo by John McCarten/City Council Photography

By David Brand

Queens candidates, activists and lawmakers have criticized Councilmember Daniel Dromm for a series of confrontational tweets directed at several candidates for City Council — predominantly women of color — who he says do not adequately highlight LGBTQ rights issues in their campaign platforms. 

Dromm, a pioneering gay rights activist, defended the tweets, calling them a deliberate strategy to put LGBTQ issues front and center in the 2021 campaign, and to galvanize younger New Yorkers who he said have taken the struggle for equity for granted. 

“What motivated me is that I’ve been a gay activist for the last 47 or so years. We’ve fought so hard for LGBTQ visibility in political platforms and to revert back to an era where you have the political platform that did not include LGBTQ issues is a setback for the community,” he told the Eagle.

But several activists, elected officials and candidates responded that the issues they champion are inherently LGBTQ rights issues. They also blasted Dromm for focusing his attention almost exclusively on women candidates.

District 22 candidate Tiffany Cabán, who identifies as queer, was one of the women of color who Dromm publicly questioned. Cabán said that LGBTQ rights issues cannot be isolated from other progressive goals.  

“Housing is a queer issue, incarceration is a queer issue, workplace protections, reproductive justice are queer issues…” she tweeted. “I walk into every space bringing my full brown, queer self, even when it isn’t safe to do so. My politics are rooted in radical queer tradition.”

Dromm began analyzing the campaign websites of women who received the endorsement of the organization 21 for ‘21 on Monday and continued to challenge the Council hopefuls through Wednesday afternoon.

He started with District 32 candidate Felicia Singh, District 19 candidate Adriana Aviles and District 26 candidate Julia Forman, each of whom he criticized for supporting charter schools. Dromm then honed in on what he called a lack of attention to LGBTQ rights issues. 

He also questioned District 26 candidate Hailie Kim and District 26 candidate Jesse Laymon, the lone man on the receiving end of his tweets. 

The aggressive questioning alienated progressive lawmakers and activists.

“You ok there?” responded Manhattan Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou. “You know ALL issues are lgbtq issues right? Just like ALL issues are women’s issues and ALL issues are poc issues?

Some of Dromm’s Queens colleagues and fellow elected officials say he went too far by targeting women of color.

“Guys, please listen to the cis white man. He knows better than anyone as usual,” State Sen. Jessica Ramos tweeted in response to one of Dromm’s many posts.

Dromm also went after district leaders and activists who slammed his Twitter tirade, including one tweet that compared Astoria Democratic District Leader Shawna Morlock to the ditzy, red-headed Gilligan’s Island character Ginger.

Fellow Democratic District Leader Emilia Decaudin said Dromm’s mocking post was sexist. 

“This kind of sexism is categorically unbecoming of a sitting Council Member,” Decaudin tweeted. “I'm proud to call @shawna_morlock a friend and a comrade in organizing and as DLs. We can recognize CM Dromm's contribution to the LGBT movement without giving him a pass for this inappropriate behavior.” 

Dromm, for his part, said the responses he has received are meant to stifle his legitimate concerns about a lack of emphasis on LGBTQ rights.

Before his career in politics, Dromm worked as a public school teacher and battled a discriminatory local Board of Education in order to institute a curriculum, known as Children of the Rainbow, that celebrated diverse identities and highlighted LGBTQ individuals and families.

In the early 1990s, he founded the Queens Pride Parade to raise the visibility of LGBTQ New Yorkers. He co-founded the Queens St. Patrick’s Day for All celebration after the Manhattan St. Patrick’s Day parade continued to prohibit LGBTQ groups from participating. 

He said he specifically wants each Council candidate to announce their stance on repealing the “walking while trans” ban, support a LGBTQ history curriculum in the public school system, describe how they would fund LGBTQ organizations and enforce a law requiring city agencies to record LGBTQ demographics among their employees.

He said his tweets asking candidates to highlight LGBTQ rights issues in their platforms were a continuation of his advocacy, and he dismissed the criticism that he was targeting women of color.

“I ask it of everyone. Some were women of color, not all, I ask it of everyone,” he said. “I believe I have a right as an activist and elected official and someone who has been in the LGBT rights movement for 50 years to ask those questions.”