CRIME
Mass Shootings Mobilize Gays Against Guns
Advocacy groups, activists, elected offi cials protest in Times Square
BY DONNA ACETO & MATT TRACY
Gays Against Guns, other advocacy
groups and activists, and elected
offi cials held a demonstration in
Times Square on August 4 to protest
gun violence just hours after mass shootings
in Texas and Ohio and one week after a
separate mass shooting in Brooklyn.
The demonstration drew more than 200
marchers voicing a sense of urgency during
a horrifi c weekend of gun violence across the
nation. In one mass shooting, a racist white
man who posted online about an “Hispanic invasion
of Texas” entered a Walmart in El Paso,
Texas, on August 3 and opened fi re, killing
22 people and injuring more than two dozen
others. Just hours later a gunman donning a
mask and a bulletproof vest used a .223-caliber
rifl e to kill nine people and injure 27 others
in Dayton, Ohio, before police killed him.
The shootings occurred just as New Yorkers
were standing up to the July 27 gun violence
in Brooklyn, where 11 people were injured and
one person was killed by two shooters at a
block party at Mendoza Park in Brownsville.
Protestors in Times Square focused on the
legislative inaction of Republicans who have
continued to stand by idly amidst mass shootings
that have on numberous occasions been
carried out by racist white men. The demonstrators
chanted, “GOP, NRA – How many people
did you kill today?”
“This is an epidemic and we all know why,”
said MaryEllen Novak of Gays Against Guns.
“People with infl uence are puppets to dark
money. People like Massacre Mitch and Leningrad
Lindsey and Ted Cruz and so many others
who earned NRA A+ ratings have clearly
traded the country’s soul for their selfi sh interests
and greed.”
Mom’s Demand Action, Community Free
Democrats, Everytown, and March for Our
Lives were among other groups on hand at the
demonstration. West Side Congressmember
Jerrold Nadler and Brooklyn Borough President
Eric L. Adams were also present.
“We have a Republican Party and a president
who are glad to be NRA lapdogs,” Nadler
said. “And what is Moscow Mitch doing about
it?”
Pressure continues to mount on Republicans
to move on gun violence. President Donald
Trump, who spent that weekend crashing
weddings at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf
club, invoked gun control in a scripted speech
on August 5 but in a confl icting response. He
called for laws to make sure those who pose “a
grave risk to public safety do not have access
to fi rearms,” but then went on to defl ect the
role of guns in shootings, saying that video
games contribute to mass shootings and that
“mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger,
not the gun.”
DONNA ACETO
Mass shooting murders in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, brought
out Gays Against Guns and other activists in Times Square on
August 4.
STEPHEN ROSS, from p.6
gave $10,000 to the Democratic Party of Virginia.
In the 2017-2018 election cycle, Ross gave
$150,000 to the RNC; $150,000 to Team Ryan,
a joint fundraising committee headed by run by
Republican Paul Ryan, now the former House
speaker; $67,300 to the NRSC; and $10,000 to
a PAC headed by Representative Thom Tillis, a
North Carolina Republican. He gave $20,000
to the New Jersey State Democratic Committee
and $10,400 to a PAC headed by Democrat Joe
Crowley, who was defeated in the 2018 primary
by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to represent a district
of Bronx and Queens taxpayers.
In the 2015-2016 election cycle, he gave
$200,000 to the Congressional Leadership
Fund, a Republican PAC, $100,000 to the RNC,
$66,400 to the NRSC, and $86,600 to the National
Republican Congressional Committee
(NRCC). He gave $50,000 to the Fighting for
Ohio Fund, a PAC run by Republican Senator
Rob Portman and $50,000 to We the People,
Not Washington, a PAC that was supporting
Republican former New York Governor George
Pataki’s quixotic run for president. The Democratic
PAC Floridians for a Strong Middle Class
received $50,000. These donations represent
contributions to PACs and committees above
$10,000 and are taken from Federal Election
Commission (FEC) records. Ross has donated
in amounts at $10,000 or less to other PACs
and committees. A cursory review of FEC records
suggest that most of that cash went to
Republican entities.
In New York State, where there are not many
Republicans to donate to, Ross has spread the
wealth among Democrats and Republicans
giving $55,000 to Governor Andrew Cuomo,
but also $27,603 to Rob Astorino, the former
Westchester County executive who ran against
Cuomo and lost in 2014.
Ross’ political donations in New York City are
minimal. Where The Related Companies has
distinguished itself here is in lobbying city offi
cials on the local real estate projects the company
has launched, including the Time Warner
Center in Columbus Circle and, more recently,
the Hudson Yards development.
From 2014 through mid-2019, the company
has spent just over $440,000 lobbying City
Council members, including Council Speaker
Corey Johnson; Emma Wolfe, Mayor Bill de
Blasio’s chief of staff, and other members of the
de Blasio administration; borough presidents;
and other city offi cials.
Trump attended two fundraisers in the
Hamptons on August 9. The second was hosted
by Joe Jarrell, a developer who builds luxury
homes in eastern Long Island. Published reports
put the combined take of the two events
at $12 to $13 million.
The news of the Ross fundraiser sparked protests
in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New
York City and calls on social media for people to
end their memberships at the clubs.
“Even if he were giving more money to Democrats,
I would still boycott Equinox and SoulCycle,”
said Michael Petrelis, an activist who organized
a protest outside of a SoulCycle outlet in
San Francisco. “The corporate leaders who are
donating to Trump, regardless of any donations
they may have made to Democrats, have given
a reason for us to hold them accountable.”
GayCityNews.com | August 15 - August 28, 2019 7
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