Anti-Gay Dan Lipinski Ousted in Illinois House Primary
Voters in Chicago suburbs opt for progressive challenger in reversal from 2018
BY MATT TRACY
Progressive congressional
candidate Marie Newman
knocked off anti-
LGBTQ and anti-abortion
incumbent Congressmember
Dan Lipinski of Illinois’ Third Congressional
District in a Democratic
primary election on March 17, capping
off a years-long effort during
which Newman rebounded from
a narrow loss to Lipinski in 2018
and fi nally sent him packing.
Newman campaigned on a platform
of single-payer Medicare for
All, a Green New Deal, and sweeping
criminal justice reform. After
one of her two children was severely
bullied in school, she teamed
up with the Chicago-based Sears
to establish Team Up to Stop Bullying,
a coalition of about 70 community
based groups nationwide
working on that issue. Newman
co-authored “When Your Child Is
Being Bullied,” a solutions-based
guide for parents, school administrators,
and policymakers, and she
consulted with Illinois offi cials and
those in other states and in Washington
on battling bullying.
In her second run this week,
Newman clung to a 47.1 percent to
44.8 percent advantage — or less
than 2,500 votes — over Lipinski
with 99 percent of precincts reporting.
Two years ago, she fell short by
2,145 votes in that district, which
encompasses the western and
southwestern suburbs of Chicago.
➤ TERRANCE MCNALLY, from p.16
and plays about opera.
McNally’s longest term relationship
was with Kirdahy whom he
met in 2001 at Guild Hall in East
Hampton where Kirdahy was hosting
a theater panel that also included
Albee and Lanford Wilson
for the East End Gay Organization.
“When I saw him,” Kirdahy told
The New York Times, “I thought he
was completely adorable.”
McNally had lost another partner
to AIDS in 2000 and was not
First term Congressmember Pramila Jayapal of Washington (center) was among those who endorsed
Illinois Congressional candidate Marie Newman (right), who won her primary victory over an anti-LGBTQ
lawmaker on March 17.
“I am bursting with pride and
gratitude for the amazing coalition
that helped bring about much
needed change in our district,”
Newman wrote on Twitter on election
night after she emerged victorious.
“We are going to work together
to lower health care costs, to fi ght
climate change, and to build an
economy that works for everyone.”
Lipinski was one of the few Democratic
members of either house of
Congress to maintain such conservative
views on LGBTQ rights
and abortion. He refused to cosponsor
the Equality Act, which
expecting to be with anyone else
at 63, but they entered into a civil
union in Vermont in 2003 and were
married by Mayor Bill de Blasio on
June 26, 2015, just hours after the
US Supreme Court legalized marriage
equality nationwide.
Viola related how in Broadway
Cares’ 1992 book “Broadway Day
& Night: Backstage and Behind
the Scenes,” in the midst of the
AIDS crisis, McNally wrote, “I am
in mourning not the Broadway
that was but the Broadway that
AIDS has seen to it will never be.”
TWITTER/ @MARIE4CONGRESS
would usher in comprehensive LGBTQ
non-discrimination protections,
and has voted against queer
rights and other measures since
he entered Congress more than a
decade ago. He opposed the Affordable
Care Act, continues to voice
his personal opposition to samesex
marriage, is co-chair of the
Congressional Pro-Life Caucus,
and co-sponsored the No Taxpayer
Funding for Abortion Act.
During the 2018 primary race
— three years after the Supreme
Court ruled in favor of same-sex
marriage — he discussed his views
In the face of that stark reality that
took so many Broadway greats,
McNally urged his community to
“do the best work we can. It’s the
only fi tting memorial to those we
have loved and lost.”
McNally’s loss in the current
pandemic on top of the complete
absence of live theater and the
mortality that we are all facing
hits hard. The traditional honor
of dimming the lights of Broadway
in honor of the greats will have to
wait for him as will fi lling a Broadway
theater for a memorial. We
POLITICS
on same-sex marriage with the
Chicago Sun-Times, saying, “Personally,
I don’t support it, but that
doesn’t matter in how I vote.”
Newman scored endorsements
from key names in the party to
help boost her profi le and propel
her campaign to victory, including
Congressmember Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez of New York and
Senators Elizabeth Warren of
Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders
of Vermont. There was celebration
among progressives following
Newman’s victory. Ocasio-Cortez
cheered Newman’s performance in
a tweet after the results emerged.
“One bright spot: despite powerful
attempts in DC to protect an
anti-LGBT+, anti-choice Dem in a
safe blue seat, powerful progressive
@Marie4Congress won the
#IL03 primary! Congratulations,
Marie,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “You
& every organizer worked so hard
to make this happen.”
Warren also turned to Twitter,
writing, “Congrats to @Marie4Congress
on winning her primary election
in #IL03! This isn’t a moment
to back down — it’s the time to
fi ght back.”
Newman will go on to face Republican
Mike Fricilone, who easily
defeated a pair of opponents on
the same evening. However, the
numbers are very much in Newman’s
favor: She received 48,042
votes compared to Fricilon’s 9,242
votes, indicating an uphill battle
for the GOP to capture the seat.
will, however, always have his incredible
work and his admonitions
on what’s worth doing.
When you write about what we
are living through now, keep Terrence
McNally in your head: “Write
plays that matter,” McNally said.
“Raise the stakes. Shout, yell, holler,
but make yourself heard. It’s
time for playwrights to reclaim the
theater. We do that by speaking
from the heart about the things
that matter most to us. If a play
isn’t worth dying for, maybe it isn’t
worth writing.”
GayCityNews.com | March 26 - April 08, 2020 17
/GayCityNews.com
