POLITICS
LGBT Center Aims to Dismiss #WalkAway Lawsuit
Legal fi ght stems from canceled event featuring right-wing queer speakers
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
& Transgender
Community Center and
other defendants have
moved to dismiss a lawsuit fi led
against them that charged they
discriminated against the conservative
founder of the #Walk-
Away movement and two of his
colleagues when The Center fi rst
agreed to rent a room to the group
for the meeting and then withdrew
that agreement after a community
outcry.
“The facts as alleged in plaintiffs’
complaint fail to establish
an intent to discriminate on the
basis of plaintiffs’ sexual orientation
and/or gender identity,” Kevin
Loftus, a partner at O’Connor,
McGuinness, Conte, Doyle, Oleson,
Watson & Loftus, wrote in
an August 20 fi ling in Manhattan
Supreme Court. “Plaintiffs simply
make conclusory allegations and
over-exaggerated claims regarding
a simple contract dispute.
Absent evidence suggesting that
defendants engaged in discriminatory
practices because of plaintiffs’
membership in a protected
class, the complaint must be dismissed.”
Brandon Straka, who is gay and
became a celebrity when he founded
the #WalkAway Campaign last
year to urge people to abandon the
Democratic Party, booked a room
at The Center this past March and
paid a $650 fee.
The town hall was slated to occur
on March 28 and would have
featured Straka, Blaire White,
Mike Harlow, and Rob Smith.
Straka most recently was among
the opening speakers at an August
1 rally for Donald Trump’s
reelection campaign in Cincinnati,
while White, who is transgender,
and Harlow, who is gay, have
established presences on social
media. Smith is best known for
opposing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
policy that barred LGBTQ people
from serving in the military.
Their politics range from libertarian
to center-right to conservative.
The LGBT Community Center has been embroiled in a legal battle against Brandon Straka, pictured
above, and others tied to the #WalkAway movement.
Following a community
outcry, which included the distribution
of an open letter that criticized
the town hall organizers,
The Center canceled the event and
refunded the $650 fee.
Straka, White, Harlow, and the
campaign are the plaintiffs in the
lawsuit, which was fi led in June.
They sued The Center and its executive
director, Glennda Testone,
as well as Gabriel Farofaldane,
who is on staff there.
Jason Rosenberg and Gordon
Beeferman were among the early
supporters of the effort to bar the
group and they are also named as
defendants. Loftus represents The
Center, Testone, and Farofaldane.
Rosenberg and Beeferman are
represented by J. Remy Green, a
partner at Cohen Green.
The lawsuit charges the defendants
with cyberbullying, defamation,
and discrimination based
on sexual orientation and gender
identity, which is barred by city
and state laws. Loftus wrote that
the plaintiffs did not support their
@BRANDONSTRAKA/TWITTER
allegations.
“Plaintiffs fail to allege any facts
that connect their respective sexual
orientations and gender identities
to the decision by The LGBT
Community Center to cancel the
plaintiffs’ event,” he wrote. “In fact,
the Center’s statement regarding
the cancelation of the event clearly
lists the reason for the event’s
cancelation.”
Loftus noted that if the court
assumes all the facts asserted in
the complaint are true, which it
is required to do when weighing a
motion to dismiss, “the allegations
evidence discrimination based
upon plaintiffs’ political beliefs, as
opposed to their sexual orientation
and gender identity.” Political
beliefs are not a protected class in
the city and state anti-discrimination
laws, and The Center can bar
them.
Loftus also asserted that his
clients did not issue or sign the
statement calling for the town hall
to be canceled and that The Center’s
own statement about why it
cancelled the town hall could not
be defamatory as defi ned under
the law.
He further stated that a single
instance of The Center posting its
statement on Twitter and on its
website could not be construed as
cyberbullying as the law defi nes
that. As important, Loftus asserted
that the law the plaintiffs are
using for the cyberbullying claim
does not create a cause of action
for a lawsuit.
“Despite plaintiffs’ conclusory
allegations that the decision to
cancel the event by The LGBT
Community Center was discriminatory
or that the statement issued
by The LGBT Community
Center was defamatory, no interpretation
of any act or statement
made by The LGBT Community
Center defendants are actionable
under the theories espoused by
the plaintiffs,” Loftus wrote.
In separate fi lings, Green also
sought to dismiss the lawsuit and
asked the court to sanction the
attorneys representing Straka as
well as Straka himself and his colleagues
for fi ling a lawsuit that is
“frivolous and without merit.” In
an August 7 letter to A. Manny
Alicandro, one of two attorneys
representing Straka and his colleagues,
Green wrote that the
plaintiffs had offered no facts that
supported the lawsuit.
“As fi led, the lawsuit fails to state
or even gesture at a single legally
supportable claim against Gordon
Beeferman or Jason Rosenberg,”
Green wrote. “The complaint suffi
ciently identifi es one statement
each by Beeferman and Rosenberg,
a tweet that does not mention
a single defendant, and an
open letter you allege was ‘principally
drafted’ and signed by defendant
Gordon Beeferman.”
Rosenberg’s tweet was posted on
March 19 and appears to be directed
at The Center. He wrote, “Like
are y’all that desperate for money?
This is incredibly egregious that
you’d host an event where panelists
have used queer slurs and
➤ #WALKAWAY LAWSUIT, continued on p.37
August 29 - September 11, 4 2019 | GayCityNews.com
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