In NYC’s Stonewall district, voters want rent relief over representation debates

Polls opened Tuesday for a special election in a New York City district known as the birthplace of the gay and trans rights movements. While the race has spurred debate over the role LGBTQ+ representation should play in city politics, voters who spoke with The Advocate said they do not want a candidate’s identity to overshadow local priorities.

“Just making the neighborhood better, that’d be my number-one thing,” Joanne Agabs, a voter from the Chelsea neighborhood who declined to share the candidate she voted for, told The Advocate.

Related: NYC’s voters will decide if representation still matters in historic LGBTQ+ district

Manhattan’s 3rd District in the New York City Council includes Stonewall Inn, as well as the neighborhoods of Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, the West Village, and Greenwich Village. The district has been represented by LGBTQ+ council members since 1992.

The district’s previous representative, state Sen. Erik Bottcher, left office in February, triggering a special election that four candidates entered. That included Carl Wilson, an out gay man who was Bottcher’s chief of staff. Wilson was also endorsed by Council Speaker Julie Menin, a moderate Democrat.

The race received more attention after Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed another candidate: activist and democratic socialist Lindsey Boylan. The remaining two candidates, Layla Law-Gisiko and Leslie Boghosian Murphy, have secured fewer high-profile endorsements but still received local support.

In interviews with The Advocate, residents voting for different candidates agreed that kitchen-table issues, such as affordability, housing, and homelessness relief, should take precedence over the identities candidates hold.

“Representation definitely matters,” said Katie Mui, a Boylan voter from Chelsea. “But I also think it’s important that the candidate or the elected official also represents the values of the community. That doesn’t have to be solely identity-based."

Related: What you need to know about the Stonewall uprising, which began 55 years ago

Remy Vazquez, a resident of the Chelsea neighborhood, supports Layla Law-Gisiko's city council campaign. Jack Walker/The Advocate

Boylan supporters generally told The Advocate they were motivated by Mamdani's endorsement and her focus on quality-of-life issues such as housing and affordability. They also expressed confidence that Boylan could support LGBTQ+ residents and organizations within the district.

“Lindsay is there at LGBTQ events. She is there fighting for trans health care as a human right,” said Tyler Potter, a Chelsea resident and field volunteer field lead for Boylan’s campaign. “We need a fighter who is actually willing to fight for these causes, even when it’s difficult to do.”

Wilson and his supporters have maintained that Wilson’s identity alone should not win him the election, but that his political background and involvement in the local LGBTQ+ community should.

“We’re standing on the shoulders of our gay ancestors by promoting gay candidates today. Now we have the most qualified candidate, who just happens to be gay,” Paul Devlin, an organizer with the Hell’s Kitchen Democrats, told The Advocate.

Devlin said Wilson has been involved in local organizing since President Donald Trump was first elected to office, when local community members felt they “weren’t being represented by the Democratic establishment.” For Devlin, Wilson would help bring new life to the city council and effectively advocate for affordability, public safety, and housing reform.

Supporters of Law-Gisiko told The Advocate they were motivated by her support for existing public housing projects in the neighborhood. The city’s proposed demolition of the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses, two public apartment buildings facing infrastructure issues, has drawn pushback from some residents, especially the buildings’ tenants.

Law-Gisiko is the only candidate who has taken a stance against the city’s plan to demolish and replace the buildings.

“No one wanted it to be torn down,” said resident and Law-Gisiko supporter Remy Vazquez. “We just don’t want to be homeless. We don’t want to have to panic to find another place to stay.”

Related: LGBTQ+ groups score legal victory over Trump, restoring Pride flag at Stonewall National Monument

Signage near a school in Chelsea promotes Carl Wilson for the city council. Jack Walker/The Advocate

While there was a consensus among most voters that their representative should support LGBTQ+ rights, issues like these took precedence over discussions about representation. Some said the high turnout in the recent mayoral election has inspired a greater focus on local issues and city politics more generally.

“I still support candidates who support Mamdani,” said Sarah Ritzmann, a Washington Heights resident not in the district who canvassed for Boylan on Tuesday. “At all levels of city and state legislature, it’s important to volunteer where we can.”

Early voting for the special election ran from April 18 to 26, and polling sites for in-person voting close on Tuesday at 9 p.m. After the votes are counted, the winner of the election will assume the district’s city council seat until December.

To be elected to a full term, candidates will also have to win this year’s city council primary election in June, as well as the general election in November. The winner of this year’s general election will serve a full four-year term in the city council.

This article was written as part of the Future of Queer Media fellowship program at The Advocate, which is underwritten by a generous gift from Morrison Media Group. The program helps support the next generation of LGBTQ+ journalists.