New York City Council
speaker Christine Quinn has come a long way since 1999, when
she was arrested for marching as an out lesbian in the
Fifth Avenue St. Patrick's Day parade. This year she
was invited to the White House as an honored guest of President
Barack Obama.
Quinn, the Big Apple's
first gay, first Irish, and first female city council
speaker, had visited the White House several times during the
Clinton administration but hadn't been back in eight years.
"It was an
interesting moment," she said, "even though you're so
honored to be there, there's still a part of you that,
until we address the issue on Fifth Avenue, will always feel
like wherever you are -- even if you're an honored guest --
there's still somewhere that you're not invited to
be."
Quinn has boycotted New
York's parade for years because organizers refuse to let LGBT
marchers display anything that indicates their sexuality or
support for gay issues.
For that reason, she
felt particularly moved to say something not only about the
Obama administration's diplomatic relations with Ireland but
also about LGBT equality. So Quinn took her moment during a
photo with the president to urge his support for
two California court decisions
stipulating that same-sex partners of federal court employees
should be entitled to health benefits. Following the rulings,
the federal Office of Personnel Management blocked the
benefits, citing the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits
federal recognition of same-sex marriages.
"I asked the
president to change the government's policy and position as it
related to the recent rulings," she said. "He could
immediately say, 'I'm not going to challenge that
ruling,' and I think it would send a message about where he
is headed and that he's certainly not moving backwards. If
he doesn't stand by that ruling, it's a tremendous
setback."
But Quinn didn't lose
sight of Ireland either and thanked President Obama for his
support of the peace process in Northern Ireland, where a
couple of politically motivated murders have taken place within
the past 10 days. Guests at the White House St. Patrick's Day
celebration included British and Irish dignitaries, including
Gerry Adams, the longtime leader of Sinn Fein.
According to Quinn, who was invited to Dublin for St. Patrick's
Day in 2007, they were all uniformly enthused by the
Administration's response to the recent violence.
"Everyone was very
happy with President Obama, who has been incredibly strong and
steadfast in support of the peace process in the North," she
said.
Quinn said the first
lady wore a beautiful sleeveless green dress, and joked that
Mrs. Obama's toned arms put "pressure on all of us to start
doing more push-ups."
Asked about the pope's
comments Tuesday that condom distribution does not help combat
HIV/AIDS and in fact exacerbates the problem, Quinn said,
"It's remarkable that somebody who is as significant a
world leader as the pope would make a declarative statement
like that not based in any fact or any science -- and he does
that knowing there are people all across the world who will
hear what he said and will do what he said. It's the height
of irresponsibility and that's putting it kindly."