Gay News from GXR News

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Matthew Titone led his victory speech last night with a one-word exclamation — a bursting firework of a word.

“History!”

As North Shore Democrats cheered on their new assemblyman and the borough’s first openly gay elected official, they heard in that opening word a long story of social progress.

Titone did not need to elaborate. As he threw up his fists, flashing cameras caught a moment that spoke for itself, and a victory that might not have been thinkable a generation ago.

“My name is Matthew Titone,” the candidate had said in June 2006, at Staten Island’s second annual gay parade, when he was running for state senate. “I’m proud to be a Democrat from Staten Island, and I also happen to be gay.”

It was by no means the first time Titone had publicly announced his homosexuality, but it was a poignant moment for Jim Smith, the parade’s inaugural grand marshal and a co-founder of Stonewall Staten Island.

“It was a moment that I won’t forget,” Smith said yesterday about Titone’s coming out at the parade. “It was a tremendous moment for me and for the gay community. It was pouring rain. Suddenly the rain didn’t matter.”

It wasn’t raining yesterday, but it was another tremendous moment– or at least, a sign of a tremendously changed political climate for many members and supporters of the gay community in a historically conservative borough.

“This couldn’t have happened in the 1980s,” said Smith. “Society on Staten Island wasn’t conditioned to it. When you were gay on Staten Island, you grew up in fear.”

It was only 1990 when Navy veteran James Zappalorti was stabbed to death by two men in Charleston who targeted him because he was gay.

But voters at the Democrats’ celebration in the Staaten, West Brighton last night said it’s a new era.

“[Titone’s win] shows that Staten Island is a lot more tolerant than people perceive it to be,” said Marianne Brennick of Grasmere, also a Stonewall founder. “It shows that people here are accepting the diversity of the population.”

“I think it’s important that [Titone’s homosexuality] wasn’t a factor [considered by voters],” said Chris Bauer, of the Staten Island Democratic Party. “People had worried, because they didn’t trust how times had changed. But we’ve come a long way.”

Meanwhile, some of Titone’s supporters scoffed at the idea that homophobia had the strength to turn levers at yesterday’s polls.

City Councilman Michael McMahon (D-North Shore) commented that off-Island New Yorkers often misperceive the Island as a homogeneous borough.

“Staten Island,” said Bauer, “is a lot more diverse than people give it credit for.”

In the Assembly, Titone will join openly gay members Deborah Glick and Daniel O’Donnell. Sen. Tom Duane is the only gay member of the state Senate. All three are Manhattan Democrats.

Last summer, the Advance informally polled 100 Staten Islanders, asking whether gay citizens should be granted the same rights as all other citizens. Eight said no; none of those eight hailed from the North Shore.

Sean Sweeney, chairman of Community Board 1, remarked at yesterday’s event that the North Shore is “the most diverse and accepting third of the borough.”

Many Democrats expressed hopes that Titone’s win would mean gay rights would have another supporter in Albany, and that more gay candidates would run in the future without fear.

But many more said Titone’s win would mean Island issues would have a champion in Albany, and that they saw Titone not as a gay candidate — but as the best one.

None of these issues came up in Titone’s victory speech.

The assemblyman-elect merely thanked, graciously, all his supporters, his constituents and family members for their help with the campaign.

After acknowledging his late father, the jurist Vito Titone, his mother, siblings and cousins, Titone added his thanks to “the family member whose respect I treasure the most: My partner.”

Source: silive.com