POLITICS
Lynn Schulman Returns to a Familiar Arena
Lesbian City Council hopeful mounts third bid for offi ce in Queens
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
Out lesbian City Council
candidate Lynn Schulman
is in the midst of
her third campaign for
City Council in Queens’ District 29
— and this time she hopes to make
some history.
After running for City Council in
2001 and 2009, Schulman is back
on the campaign trail with a goal
of bringing change to the district,
which encompasses Forest Hills,
Kew Gardens, Rego Park, Richmond
Hill, and Maspeth. Unlike
her previous bids for offi ce, however,
this time she is navigating
a campaign during the coronavirus
pandemic, which she said has
“laid bare” existing disparities in
the city — particularly in the area
of public health.
“A lot more people died than
needed to,” said Schulman, who
pointed to the shortage of hospital
beds and capacity in the borough
from early on in the crisis. “I want
to provide services and give support
to people in marginalized communities
that don’t have a voice.”
Schulman is one of 13 candidates
who fi led to run for the open
seat to replace term-limited City
Councilmember Karen Koslowitz.
With less than three months until
the Democratic primary, her campaign
has an estimated balance
of $171,292, following only David
Aronov, who has $171,815, and Avi
Cyperstein, who has $171,426, according
to the New York City Campaign
Finance Board.
If elected, Schulman would be
Lynn Schulman is running in Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Rego Park, Richmond Hill, and Maspeth.
the fi rst out LGBTQ woman to
serve as a lawmaker in the borough
of Queens — and that weighs even
more heavily on her in light of the
homophobic threats she received
in her mailbox during her earlier
campaigns. In her 2001 campaign
for City Council, she was beaten
handily in the Democratic primary
by then-Assemblymember Melinda
Katz, who is now Queens district
attorney. In the 2009 Democratic
primary, she went on to lose a race
that was won by Koslowitz.
Schulman, who previously held
posts at the Woodhull Medical Center
in Brooklyn and Gay Men’s Health
Crisis, currently works as a senior
community and emergency services
liaison in the offi ce of out gay New York
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson,
where she provides outreach to advocacy
groups and residents.
Whether in the public or private
sector, defending her values has
LYNN SCHULMAN
not always been easy.
In the 1990s, then-Mayor-elect
Rudy Giuliani allegedly ousted
Schulman from her job as associate
executive director for Emergency
Medical Services. Giuliani
meddled in a dispute between
paramedics and a mother who
wanted responders to take her injured
child to a different hospital,
according to an archived newspaper
clip from the New York Times.
Schulman told the Times that the
paramedics responded appropriately
given the service’s guidelines.
“I gave what the standard policy
was…and Giuliani didn’t like it,”
Schulman told Gay City News. “He
told his people he wanted me gone.”
Years later, Schulman said this
incident fueled her desire to be a
voice for the community.
“I wear it as a badge of honor
now,” she said. “It amplifi ed to me
why I want to be in public service
as opposed to working in the private
sector. In the private sector…
you’re working for the dollar. In
here, I’m working for other people
and trying to make people’s lives
better.”
Schulman is vowing to advocate
for more affordable housing and
healthcare, and she wants to propose
legislation requiring city developers
to assess the impact of new buildings
on hospital capacity. Among other issues,
she supports the full decriminalization
of sex work — a key LGBTQ
issue in the state.
Schulman said she wants to “demilitarize”
the NYPD, which would
include providing social services
instead of a police response to
homelessness or a mental health
crisis. However, when asked how
much money she would allocate
away from the city’s police budget,
Schulman declined to give an exact
number.
“You got to really be careful and
really take a hard look at what
you’re cutting and how you’re cutting
it,” she said.
Schulman has nabbed endorsements
from the Victory Fund, a
nationwide organization dedicated
to electing LGBTQ people into offi
ce; the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic
Club, a citywide LGBTQ political
club; the Lesbian and Gay
Democratic Club of Queens; out
gay Congressmember Ritchie Torres
of the Bronx; Councilmembers
Carlina Rivera of Manhattan and
Costa Constantinides of Queens;
and labor unions such as 32BJ
and DC37.
➤ TRANSGENDER TROOPS, from p.7
that… You can’t do that.”
After the ban went into effect in
April of 2019, Gay City News uncovered
the military’s dysfunctional
and chaotic rollout process. When
this newspaper contacted every
branch of the government to seek
details on the status of the policy,
some branches withheld details
about discharges and others said
discharges of trans service members
were not being tracked. The
Pentagon at the time itself also appeared
to misrepresent the policy.
Now the current administration
is drawing praise.
Aaron Belkin, director of the
Palm Center, a think tank studying
LGBTQ people in the armed
forces, applauded the administration’s
plan and said the center
would continue to monitor the reintegration
of transgender troops.
“This is a big step toward making
our military stronger and fairer,”
Belkin said in a written statement.
SPART*A, a group of transgender
service members and veterans, said
the latest measures would improve
the well-being of transgender military
personnel who have felt forced
to hide their gender identity.
“This policy provides much-needed
clarity to our service members,
allowing them to complete their
transitions in a timely fashion and
quickly resume their day to day mission
within our armed services,” said
Melody Stachour, a Navy chief petty
0ffi cer and member at SPART*A.
Until the policy is in effect later
this month, service members, commanders,
and medical professionals
will follow the Department’s interim
guidance instated after Biden’s executive
order earlier this year.
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