LGBTQ Activists Jump in the Ocean to Protest Nukes
Advocates nudge City Council to consider pair of nuclear disarmament bills
BY MATT TRACY
LGBTQ activists Brendan
Fay and Robert Croonquist
huddled with other
New York-based members
of International Campaign to Abolish
Nuclear Weapons and ran into the Atlantic
Ocean at Far Rockaway on New
Year’s Day as part of a public demonstration
against nuclear weapons.
The activists, who plunged into
the freezing waters at Rockaway
Beach and 92nd Street, are pushing
the City Council to move forward
with a resolution asking the city
comptroller to divest pension funds
of public employees from sources of
nuclear weapons and a bill creating
an advisory committee that would
evaluate nuclear disarmament and
other issues geared towards making
New York City a nuclear weaponsfree
zone. Those bills were proposed
by out gay Councilmember Daniel
Dromm of Queens, who has welcomed
the support of dozens of cosponsors
in both cases.
The activists are asking out gay
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson
to advance the measures before
the Treaty of the Prohibition of
Nuclear Weapons becomes international
law on January 22.
“Today we are polar bears for
peace,” Fay said in a written statement.
“We join this exuberant New
Year’s ritual to celebrate life, health
and hope. As disarmament activists,
for the sake of children, their future,
and love of Earth, we are determined
to make our world free of nuclear
weapons. Besides, this is the inspiring
legacy of generations of New Yorkers
like Dorothy Day, Bayard Rustin
and Mayor David Dinkins.”
Croonquist, a former public school
teacher who is a member of Rise and
Resist and the Reclaim Pride Coalition,
said he was driven to jump into
the ocean when he thought about the
high school students he taught at Jamaica
High School in Queens.
“This legislation would divert my
pension’s investments from weapons
of mass destruction and redirect
them to things that bring true
security — investments in food,
housing, climate, infrastructure
and healthcare.”
DONNA ACETO
Brendan Fay (left) and Robert Croonquist (right).
DONNA ACETO
ACTIVISM
Leon Kirschner, Robert Croonquist, Ardes Quinn, and Brendan Fay held signs as they sprinted into the
ocean.
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Kathleen Sullivan emphasized the point that New York City remains tied to nuclear weapons.
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