Seawright looks to overcome ballot drop
FILE PHOTO
State Assemblywoman Rebecca Seawright.
‘Our community has been neglected’: NYC Lawmaker
seeks count of LGBTQ victims with COVID-19
BY MATT TRACY
Out gay State Senator Brad Hoylman
of Manhattan is spearheading
legislation that would require
the New York State Department of Health
to gather information about the sexual
orientation and gender identity of people
diagnosed with COVID-19.
The proposal follows a related initiative
underway in New York City, where the
city’s Department of Health and Mental
Hygiene has announced that individuals
taking antibody tests are now being asked
about their sexual orientation and gender
identity.
The dual campaigns could help provide
important insight about the impact of
coronavirus on the LGBTQ community
in the wake of other data showing COVID-
19-related disparities emerging on the
basis of race, income, and neighborhood,
among other demographic factors.
“It is important that we get as much
information about the impact of COVID
on the LGBTQ population because at the
moment we don’t really know,” Hoylman
said in an interview with Gay City News.
“Our community has been neglected in
terms of statewide data collection.”
BY MARK HALLUM
Democrat Rebecca Seawright is in serious jeopardy
of losing her Assembly seat representing
the Upper East Side for a third term after the
state Court of Appeals sided with the Board of Elections
to remove her from the ballot for the second time. But
she’s determined to fi nd a way back to Albany.
In a 5-2 decision, the court determined that while
failing to place cover pages on her petition fi lings was
not a “fatal” error Seawright, the late fi ling of a certifi -
cate of acceptance as the Working Families Party choice
past the March deadline was precedent to knock her off
the ballot for the upcoming state primary.
While the deadline was March 20, Seawright fi led
the day prior. The board regarded the missing components
as grounds for considering the fi lings as tardy.
Now it is unclear if Seawright will be able to hold her
post beyond the Dec. 31, 2020 expiration.
“We will not abandon the right of the voters of the
Upper East Side, Yorkville and Roosevelt Island to reject
the Trump Republican Party’s candidate for New
York State Assembly. As a lifelong Democrat, we are
running for re-election on an independent party line,”
Seawright said. “As we approach the one hundredth anniversary
of the right of women to vote in our nation, we
will not be denied the opportunity to place our record
If the state is not equipped with that information,
Hoylman stressed that it would
be diffi cult to make decisions on how to
best serve the needs of the community.
“The NYC Health Department has
worked diligently in its work before this
pandemic and now in the age of COVID-19
to capture sexual orientation and gender
identity data to make sure these communities
are seen and heard in the data,” Dr.
Demetre Daskalakis, the deputy commissioner
for disease control at the city health
department, said in a written statement to
Gay City News.
How exactly the data will be collected
by the state, however, is not clear. Hoylman
deferred many of the questions about the
data collection process to the state health
department because that agency would
be the one tasked with gathering the
information. Hoylman suggested that the
information could be gathered via survey
or at the point of care.
“They would be voluntary questions,
but as with most identifying information
it would require people to be forthcoming
about their sexual orientation or gender
identity and it would have to be done in a
sensitive manner,” Hoylman said, emphasizing
that privacy would be protected.
of advocacy for our community before the voters. We
will be on the election ballot come Nov. 3.”
Seawright told the courts her fi ling was late due to
her experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
A spokesman for Seawright told amNewYork Metro
that the she will have some presence on the general
election ballot possibly fi ling as an independent through
the October deadline. The spokesman also stressed the
fact that two lower courts had sided in Seawright’s favor
and that her popularity in the district would carry her
through.
Sochie Nnaemeka, Working Families Party New York
State Director, went after the basic fact that with the
disruptions of the pandemic that the BOE is not offering
fl exibility to candidates affected by the virus.
“As our families and communities, including candidates
across the state, struggled with health and
family concerns, it is unfortunate that the Board
of Elections has not offered more grace and equity
towards candidates like Seawright, whose lives and
daily routines were upended by the pandemic,” Nnaemeka
said.
As for the city Board of Elections, amNewYork Metro
did not receive a response to the comments from Seawright
or the WFP before deadline.
Seawright’s district covers Roosevelt Island and the
Upper East Side; she was fi rst was elected in 2015.
Manhattan State Senator Brad Hoylman is introducing legislation that would
require the State Health Department to collect data on LGBTQ people with
COVID-19.
The state health department did not
answer a series of questions from Gay
City News seeking answers to how the data
would be collected, citing a policy that the
department does not comment on pending
legislation.
PHOTO BY DONNA ACETO/GAY CITY NEWS
Spokesperson Erin Silk acknowledged
that the state is “collecting data for transgender
and gender non-conforming individuals
through our antibody testing and
sampling program,” but specifi c details
about that were not disclosed.
4 May 28, 2020 Schneps Media