POLITICS
Out Gay Ex-General Outlines Bid for Mayor
Loree Sutton’s candidacy bets that military experience can top a political résumé
Loree Sutton, a psychiatrist, retired US Army brigadier general, and 2021 Democratic mayoral hopeful, during an interview with Gay City News the week of
Veterans Day.
BY MATT TRACY
Nearly four decades before
Loree Sutton decided
to run for mayor
of the nation’s biggest
city and well before she became an
Army psychiatrist and decorated
brigadier general, she fi lled out a
form to join the military.
None of the questions on that
form seemed out of the ordinary —
not at the time.
“I was asked, ‘Have you ever engaged
in homosexual conduct?’
‘No’ was an easy answer,” Sutton
recalled during an interview with
Gay City News the week of Veterans
Day. “I didn’t think anything
about it because I didn’t think that
was who I was.”
Now the bubbly, cheerful, and
energetic 60-year-old 2021 mayoral
hopeful, fresh off a stint as
the founding commissioner of the
city’s Department of Veterans’ Services,
is an out gay woman — her
preferred way of describing herself
— who is happily married to
the love of her life, Laurie Leitch.
Sutton’s own coming out process
wasn’t just a matter of coming out
publicly — it was a matter of coming
to terms with her own sexuality,
as well.
Of course, she was busy: she
went to medical school, completed
her residency, graduated from the
US Army Command and General
Staff College, became the founding
director of the Defense Centers of
Excellence for Psychological Health
and Traumatic Brain Injury, and
managed to fi t in tours around the
globe in places like Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, and Iraq. She left parts of
her personal life behind while she
was climbing the ranks of the US
military before and after the 1994
implementation of Don’t Ask, Don’t
Tell.
“It took me awhile to get it right,”
she explained. “If I had perfect
clarity, I would have found my Laurie
sooner. But I take comfort and
courage from a quote by Maya Angelou,
‘You did then what you knew
how to do, and when you knew better,
you did better.’ I feel like it’s just
been in these last several years, I
feel full. I never felt full, not in the
30 years in the Army and not before
MATT TRACY
that as a kid growing up. I now
feel full. That’s made all the difference.”
That fullness allowed Sutton to
set her sights on new opportunities
after retiring from the military
in 2010. She moved to New
York City in 2013 and the following
year was appointed to lead
the Mayor’s Offi ce of Veterans’
Services, which would eventually
turn into the Department of Veterans’
Services (DVS). She earned
a reputation for passionate advocacy
in that role, including a time
earlier this year when homophobic
City Council Veterans’ Committee
Chair Chaim Deutsch, who DVS
offi cials said had refused to meet
with Sutton and the department,
took the occasion of a hearing on
veterans’ suicides to blast the city’s
mental health initiative known
as ThriveNYC. Sutton had to redirect
the focus of that hearing
back to the suicide issue, even as
she delivered a spirited defense of
ThriveNYC. The effort, she emphasized,
was critical in distributing
health resources toward women,
LGBTQ folks, and other marginalized
city residents.
What exactly a Sutton administration
would look like is diffi cult
to predict since she has never been
an elected offi cial. Positioning herself
as a moderate — a “centrist,”
she says — Sutton stresses that
her experience “as a physician
and psychiatrist is really focused
on relationships, bringing people
together, fi nding common ground,
and fi nding wisdom from all different
sides of the political spectrum.”
Elaborating on that point, she
said she would explore “common
sense solutions” bridging the public
and private sectors in the areas
of housing, mental health, the environment,
education, and entrepreneurship.
She praised the way
in which the L train shutdown plan
was mediated to avoid a complete
closure, saying that she is “particularly
open to fi nding the L train
solution to our other problems.”
She believes she comes from a
place of authenticity and described
her candidacy as one that would
be refreshing in a political environment
full of career politicians.
“I think there is a clear distinction
between me as someone who
is not a politician, who brings the
leadership experience from the
military and in the city, and someone
who is a gay woman who has
led change and reform, and also
someone who brings a fresh perspective,”
Sutton said. “It is no
small thing to think about the
baggage of politicians after years
of experience — the handshakes,
the deals, promises — I bring none
of that.”
Whether a centrist candidate can
rally the support of New Yorkers in
a city where voters have elected a
string of progressive insurgents
in recent years remains a question
that will be asked until voters
head to the polls in the Democratic
primary 19 months from now. Six
years ago, city residents opted for
Bill de Blasio’s progressive platform
over out lesbian City Council
Speaker Christine Quinn’s estab-
➤ LOREE SUTTON, continued on p.7
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