POLITICS
Ritchie Raises $335k in Second House Filing
Bronx lawmaker brings in most reported borough donations in quest for Capitol Hill
BY MATT TRACY
Out gay congressional candidate
Ritchie Torres of the Bronx beat all
of his competitors with a $335,089
fundraising haul during the most
recent fi ling period in the packed race to replace
outgoing Congressmember Jose Serrano in the
15th Congressional District.
Torres’ latest fi ling encompassed the time
period between July 1 and September 30 and
came roughly three months after he pulled in
$522,000 in his fi rst fi ling ending on June 30.
He currently has $722,436 in cash on hand.
Torres, who is chair of the City Council’s
Committee on Oversight and Investigations,
is mounting an historic congressional bid: If
elected, he would become the fi rst out gay black
member of Congress and the fi rst out gay Latinx
member of Congress. But he’s facing competition,
most notably from his homophobic City
Council colleague, Ruben Diaz, Sr., as well as
from Assemblymember Michael Blake and former
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito.
Upper Manhattan Councilmember Ydanis
NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL/ JEFF REED
Ritchie Torres of the Bronx is loaded with cash after two fi lings,
giving him an edge down the stretch as he faces formidable foes
like homophobic Councilmember Ruben Diaz, Sr.
Rodriguez has also entered the race.
Torres landed $5,000 donations from a
handful of unions, including Laborers’ International
Union of North America, Machinists Non-
Partisan Political League, Metallic Lathers and
Reinforcing Iron Workers Local 46, and United
Association Political Education Committee. For
the second straight quarter, Torres received a
$5,000 boost from the political arm of the Congressional
LGBT Equality Caucus , which endorsed
him over the summer. He also has been
endorsed by the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which
Gay City News fi rst reported .
The 31-year-old garnered 100 Bronx-based
donations, up from the 61 contributions he received
in the borough during the spring and
more than twice as many as any other candidate.
Diaz, who raised $44,388 in his latest
fi ling, trailed behind Torres with 47 donations
coming from the Bronx.
Blake had the second-biggest fundraising
haul of the quarter behind Torres, raking in
$239, 260, but he yielded just 36 donations in
his home borough.
Mark-Viverito, who lives in Manhattan but
represented part of the Bronx during her time
in the City Council, raised $151,613 since entering
the race in August. Only 13 of her contributions
came from the Bronx.
➤ RITCHIE TORRES, continued on p.11
In House Bid, Cabrera Downplays Anti-LGBTQ Record
Bronx councilmember, ally of homophobes in Uganda, shows no evidence of having evolved
BY MATT TRACY
Bronx Councilmember
Fernando Cabrera is
challenging Bronx and
Queens Congressmember
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the
Democratic primary next year —
and he’s already trying to minimize
his disastrous record on LGBTQ
rights.
Cabrera, whose City Council district
encompasses Morris Heights,
University Heights, Fordham, and
Kingsbridge, initially told the New
York Daily News that he is running
for Congress because the district,
in his view, needs a representative
“that’s going to be present, that’s going
to attend quality-of-life issues…
who’s not going to run more jobs out
of New York City.”
But when asked by the Daily
News about his well-documented
history of homophobia, he shot
back, saying, “I always fi nd it ironic
because I have supported every bill,
every single bill that has come to the
Council that was important to the
LGBT caucus.”
Contrary to his assertion, Cabrera
has voted on multiple occasions
against LGBTQ rights legislation
led by members of that caucus. He
voted against out gay City Council
Speaker Corey Johnson’s 2014 bill
to allow folks to change the gender
designation on their birth certifi
cate and he opposed a related
bill led by Councilmember Daniel
Dromm of Queens requiring an advisory
board to implement the gender
marker change requirement. He
was also absent from voting on legislation
requiring the Department of
Education to report on gay-straight
alliances.
Dromm, who is the chair of the
LGBT caucus, did not respond to a
request for comment about Cabrera’s
NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL/ EMIL COHEN
Bronx Councilmember Fernando Cabrera, vying
to unseat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, wants to
sweep his anti-LGBTQ record under the rug.
claims to have supported every
bill important to the caucus. Cabrera
did not immediately respond
to an email seeking comment.
Despite Cabrera’s rhetoric, his resistance
to LGBTQ rights remains
evident today . He is the founder
and pastor at New Life Outreach
International, a nondenominational
church in the Bronx, which still
boasts a “Statement of Faith” stating
that marriage is “the exclusive
covenantal union of one man and
one woman.” And in February, he
abstained from a vote to strip Bronx
Councilmember Ruben Diaz, Sr., of
his Committee on For-Hire Vehicles
in response to his homophobic comments.
Most notably, Cabrera was widely
criticized in 2014 when he traveled
to Uganda after that nation passed
a bill penalizing same-sex relations
with life imprisonment. He posted a
video on YouTube during that trip,
calling the government “godly” while
commending their leaders for sticking
to their values in the face of what
he described as warnings by the
United States to cut aid unless they
supported same-sex marriage. The
➤ FERNANDO CABRERA, continued on p.11
October 24 - November 6 10 , 2019 | GayCityNews.com
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