Posted on by Nathan Riley

Progressive Hell’s Kitchen Club Sticks with Cuomo

BY NATHAN RILEY | Right in Cynthia Nixon’s backyard, just weeks after the actor and activist announced her Democratic primary challenge to Andrew Cuomo, the Hell’s Kitchen Democrats — a progressive newcomer on the local political club scene — voted Thursday night to endorse the two-term governor for reelection.

The club held its first endorsement meeting for statewide offices April 5, and elected officials showed up to make personal pleas for support. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli appeared and described the duties of his office, talking about leveraging his office’s control of the state employees’ pension funds to insist that corporations hire women and minorities for their boards of directors. He also talked about working with shareholder activists to press corporate America to abide by the Paris Agreement on climate change, despite President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the US from it.

Club members had the chance to compare Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul and her primary opponent, Brooklyn City Councilmember Jumaane Williams. Hochul, who appeared on behalf of the governor, emphasized her record of supporting women’s issues including the right to choose in Republican districts in western New York State. She also argued that she and Cuomo are steadfast supporters of the long-stalled Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, a transgender civil rights measure, despite what she said was opposition from many upstate New Yorkers.

West Side’s newest Democratic organization supports all incumbents except IDC’s Marisol Alcantara

“I am laser focused on bringing our country back” from Trump’s reactionary policies, said Hochul, who reminded the club that 2018 is the 100th anniversary of the first time women voted in New York State elections.

Williams, for his part, promised to turn the lieutenant governor’s office into the state equivalent of the city’s public advocate role.

“I will speak against the governor,” he promised. “The emperor has no clothes” he argued, citing corruption and high rents as failures of the current administration in Albany. When questioned about a City Council bill that made it easier for transgender New Yorkers to change their birth certificates, however, Williams acknowledged that he abstained from voting on that citing concerns he had about a specific portion of the language in the measure. [Editor’s note: The original posting of this story incorrectly reported that Williams had voted “no” on the bill.]

Hochul, DiNapoli, and State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the only other statewide elected officials besides Cuomo, also received the club’s nod. Specific tallies from the secret ballot were not announced.

Despite the announcement this week that the renegade Independent Democratic Conference in the State Senate would abandon its alliance with the Republicans who control that chamber and rejoin the regular Democratic Conference, the Hell’s Kitchen Dems vowed to continue opposing IDC members facing primary challenges in September. The club endorsed former City Councilmember Robert Jackson in his challenge to Marisol Alcantara, who immediately joined the IDC after her 2016 election to a Senate seat representing the West Side. Jackson lost to Alcantara two years ago and is eagerly preparing for a rematch.

The club also endorsed four local state legislative incumbents — Assemblymembers Richard Gottfried and Linda Rosenthal and Senators Liz Krueger and out gay Brad Hoylman. Gottfried, Rosenthal, and Krueger each addressed the club.

This was posted on GayCityNews.com on April 6, 2018

Posted on by Nathan Riley

Progressive Hell’s Kitchen Club Sticks with Cuomo

BY NATHAN RILEY | Right in Cynthia Nixon’s backyard, just weeks after the actor and activist announced her Democratic primary challenge to Andrew Cuomo, the Hell’s Kitchen Democrats — a progressive newcomer on the local political club scene — voted Thursday night to endorse the two-term governor for reelection.

The club held its first endorsement meeting for statewide offices April 5, and elected officials showed up to make personal pleas for support. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli appeared and described the duties of his office, talking about leveraging his office’s control of the state employees’ pension funds to insist that corporations hire women and minorities for their boards of directors. He also talked about working with shareholder activists to press Corporate America to abide by the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, despite President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the US from it.

Club members had the chance to compare Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul and her primary opponent, Brooklyn City Councilmember Jumaane Williams. Hochul, who appeared on behalf of the governor, emphasized her record of supporting women’s issues including the right to chose in Republican districts in western New York State. She also argued that she and Cuomo are steadfast supporters of the long-stalled Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, a transgender civil rights measure, despite what she said was opposition from many upstate New Yorkers.

West Side’s newest Democratic organization supports all incumbents except IDC’s Marisol Alcantara

“I am laser focused on bringing our country back” from Trump’s reactionary policies, said Hochul, who reminded the club that 2018 is the 100th anniversary of the first time women voted in New York State elections.

Williams, for his part, promised to turn the lieutenant governor’s office into the state equivalent of the city’s public advocate role.

“I will speak against the governor,” he promised. “The emperor has no clothes” he argued, citing corruption and high rents as failures of the current administration in Albany. When questioned about a City Council bill that made it easier for transgender New Yorkers to change their birth certificates, however, Williams was forced to admit he had voted against it.

Hochul, DiNapoli, and State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the only other statewide elected officials besides Cuomo, also received the club’s nod. Specific tallies from the secret ballot were not announced.

Despite the announcement this week that the renegade Independent Democratic Conference in the State Senate would abandon its alliance with the Republicans who control that chamber and rejoin the regular Democratic Conference, the Hell’s Kitchen Dems vowed to continue opposing IDC members facing primary challenges in September. The club endorsed former City Councilmember Robert Jackson in his challenge to Marisol Alcantara, who immediately joined the IDC after her 2016 election to a Senate seat representing the West Side. Jackson lost to Alcantara two years ago and is eagerly preparing for a rematch.

The club also endorsed four local state legislative incumbents — Assemblymembers Richard Gottfried and Linda Rosenthal and Senators Liz Krueger and out gay Brad Hoylman. Gottfried, Rosenthal, and Krueger each addressed the club.

This article was posted to GayCityNews.com on April 6, 2018

Posted on by Nathan Riley

Rosenthal Takes On Insurers’ PrEP Blacklisting

This article appeared on GayCityNews.com on March 1, 2018

BY NATHAN RILEY | Upper West Side Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal has introduced legislation to bar insurance companies from discriminating against people who take the anti-HIV treatment intended to prevent infection known as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, or PrEP.

Its introduction was a major step forward in preventing the spread of the AIDS virus. Known by the brand name Truvada, this drug cocktail, if taken correctly, is highly effective in preventing infection, providing what many view as bullet-proof protection against the virus.

“Several studies have shown that users who take the drug daily are at nearly zero risk of HIV infection,” Donald G. McNeill, Jr., the top medical reporter at the New York Times, wrote in February.

Penalizing those taking precautions outrages Upper West Side assemblymember

McNeill’s story (nytimes.com/2018/02/12/health/truvada-hiv-insurance.html) created considerable buzz when he reported that some insurance companies — primarily those providing life, disability, and long-term care policies, rather than health insurance itself — were denying coverage to persons who were taking the pills. One tart-tongued researcher voicing amazement about this said such coverage denials “really are silly — it’s like refusing to insure someone because they use seatbelts.”

Rosenthal, who is the chair of the Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, argues insurance companies following this practice will have a pernicious impact by discouraging the use of PrEP. The companies, she said, “are trying to deny coverage to good risks, people who are taking every precaution to prevent themselves from getting sick with HIV.”

PrEP isn’t popular with fundamentalists and others looking to compel gay men to change their behavior, rather than pursue sex with prudent precautions. Just as the birth control pill lowered the risk of unwanted pregnancies for heterosexuals, PrEP is a medical advance that stops HIV infection even when condoms aren’t used.

Even at the height of the AIDS crisis, there were always some men who didn’t use condoms and in time clinicians began to experiment with giving healthy men anti-HIV drugs, hence the name pre-exposure prophylaxis. After years of fine-tuning and conducting efficacy tests, PrEP works like a vaccine. Daily users don’t get HIV infections, but they are vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases if they abandon condoms.

Some gay men use PrEP and condoms to feel completely safe in their sexual encounters, while others are willing to assume the risk of STD infections as long as they are comfortable that they won’t become infected with HIV.

Significantly, PrEP plays a critical role in the New York State plan to end HIV as an epidemic by 2020. Public health officials exult in being able to offer people at the highest risk of getting infected with HIV a medicine that prevents transmissions. Data from the city health department show a trend of declining new infections, but a step-up in PrEP use will be needed to reach the state and city’s ambitious goal over the next three years.

McNeill’s reporting on insurance companies balking at PrEP use has state regulators investigating insurance companies for engaging in illegal discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Rosenthal’s bill would flat out prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage, she said in an email to Gay City News.

“Insurance companies manufacture myriad reasons to deny coverage,” she wrote. “These coverage decisions are based on tired old tropes from the ‘80s about gay people and HIV that not only reinforce stigmas we worked for years to reverse but also the discourage the use of life-saving drugs.”