Members of LGBTQ community turn Christopher
Park into queer space amid weekend protests
BY MATT TRACY
Following the conclusion
of a lively demonstration
centered on racial injustice
and police abuse in Washington
Square Park on June 6, a diverse
group of LGBTQ folks helped
transform Christopher Park into
a vibrant queer space on the fi rst
weekend of Pride Month.
Music blared from a portable
speaker, dancers let loose,
couples embraced, and even dogs
mingled together as the community
fi led into a space that served
as an alternative to a bar scene
that is temporarily on hold due
to the pandemic. The fading sun
peeked through the trees with
just over an hour to go until what
would be the fi nal day of an oftcriticized
curfew imposed on the
fi ve boroughs.
Many in the gathering were
individuals who walked over
from Washington Square Park
— cardboard signs in hand — to
make a pit stop in the park on
a warm, summery evening that
PHOTO BY MATT TRACY The Stonewall Inn on the first weekend of Pride Month.
featured just enough wind to
blow the Rainbow Flags perched
on the fence around the park.
Across the street, thirsty folks
lined up at The Duplex bar for
Schumer pushes for help to ease rent crisis
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
Struggling renters across New York
City could benefi t from a $100 billion
assistance program that remains
stalled in the United States Senate, according
to Senate Minority Leader Charles
Schumer.
On June 7, New York’s senior senator
ratcheted up the pressure on Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
to approve the rent relief initiative in a
pending COVID-19 economic aid bill.
Schumer said the aid program would benefi
t, in particular, low-income communities
of color that have been hardest hit by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The program, known as the Emergency
Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization
Act, is part of the HEROES Act, a
COVID-19 relief bill that the House passed
last month. The Senate, however, has yet to
make a move on it; McConnell has previously
stated his opposition to the act.
“Our working families, many of color
and of other minority groups, are in desperate
need of this basic assistance so
their cocktails-to-go. Next door
to The Duplex, the Stonewall
Inn — the site of multiple protests
within the last week focusing on
police abuse of Black transgender
A tenant goes on rent strike at the Cosmopolitan Houses in Woodside, Queens.
they can continue working, feeding their
families and living in this city,” Schumer
said on June 7. “This is the least Congress
can — and must — do given the challenges
New York has uniquely suffered amid this
individuals — remained adorned
with images featuring, among
others, Tony McDade, a trans
man who was killed by police
in Tallahassee, Florida, late last
PHOTO COURTESY OF WOODSIDE ON THE MOVE
pandemic, and that’s our push today.”
Since the pandemic hit New York,
tenants and tenant advocates alike have
sought economic assistance to help families
impacted by economic hardship remain in
month, and Nina Pop, a trans
woman who was murdered in her
small town Missouri apartment
earlier last month. One large sign
reminded everyone that “PRIDE
IS A RIOT #BLM” and candles
stood at the edge of the bar’s
brick wall.
At multiple demonstrations
in the city on that same day,
some protesters brought attention
to the plight of Black trans
individuals who continue to be
under siege both from deadly
violence and from targeted policing
here in New York thanks
to an outdated loitering law used
by law enforcement offi cers to
harass and arrest trans women
of color.
At Washington Square Park
that afternoon, one man attached
a sign to his backpack that read,
“Black cis ‘n trans lives matter.”
Several miles away, over at
Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza
just minutes before curfew, a
“Black Trans Lives Matter” sign
emerged in the air from a large
crowd of protesters.
their homes without falling behind on payments.
Governor Andrew Cuomo imposed
a moratorium on eviction and foreclosure
proceedings through August, but the advocates
argue that it doesn’t directly address
the fi nancial obligation tenants face.
The Emergency Rental Assistance Program,
Schumer said, would help families
across the United States afford to pay their
rent and utility bills. Without that funding,
he noted, families would face the threat of
being thrown out of their homes once the
eviction bans are lifted.
Evictions themselves are fi nancially
damaging to tenants, the senator said,
because they negatively impact a tenant’s
credit score, tarnishing their fi nancial
records for years.
The fi nancial assistance not only helps
the tenants, but also their landlords, as it
would prevent building owners from falling
behind on their mortgage and tax obligations,
Schumer added.
The Urban Institute estimates that 17.6
million renter households across the U.S.
need about $96 billion in relief to overcome
the fi nancial impact of COVID-19.
4 June 11, 2020 Schneps Media