Presumptive new Pride Agenda head withdraws bid

A week after media reports indicated the Empire State Pride Agenda had chosen Brian Ellner as its new executive director, the senior aide to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein abruptly withdrew his name from contention.

"It didn't work out, and I wish them the best," Ellner told the New York Times late on Friday, May 21.

The Times reported late Friday, May 14, Ellner would succeed Alan Van Capelle, who left the organization earlier this year to work for City Comptroller John Liu. An ESPA spokesperson told EDGE on Thursday, May 20, the organization's "search process hasn't yet concluded," but Allen Roskoff, president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, was quick to criticize the potential appointment.

He specifically singled out Ellner's decision to accept a position in the Department of Education after he said he specifically campaigned on an anti-Mayor Michael Bloomberg platform during his unsuccessful bid to become Manhattan Borough President in 2005. Roskoff, who co-authored the country's first gay rights bill in the early 1970s, added his organization would sever all ties with the Pride Agenda if Ellner becomes its new executive director.

"The LGBT community deserves a leader who has demonstrated commitment to the issues before our community," said Roskoff. "In the upcoming fight for marriage equality, we require someone who puts rights of same-sex couples before self-advancement and a lucrative paycheck."

Ellner did not return EDGE's request for comment, but other LGBT activists echoed Roskoff's criticisms.

"For the Empire State Pride Agenda to pick Brian Ellner is disappointing," said Melissa Sklarz of the New York Transgender Rights Organization. "He has diminished community [support] and [as] years of being a Bloomberg insider, you have to question how much political strength he can bring to any LGBT dialogue."

Critics routinely cite the mayor's decision to back former President George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign and his opposition to the Dignity in All Schools Act the City Council overwhelmingly passed the same year as two of the myriad of reasons they oppose his administration. Ellner himself applauded Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Klein for the initiative they unveiled in Sept. 2008 that mandated school administrators to track incidents of bias-based bullying and harassment in the classroom and to conduct prompt investigations of complaints.

"This is a strong regulation and it certainly puts us on the forefront nationally," he said as EDGE reported on Sept. 3, 2008. "It demonstrates a clear commitment on the part of the mayor and chancellor to eradicate bias and bullying in our schools and to protect all kids."

The Bloomberg administration also appealed state Supreme Court Justice Doris Ling-Cohan's 2005 ruling that found the state's ban on marriage for gays and lesbians unconstitutional. Not everyone, however, opposes the Pride Agenda's reported decision to choose Ellner to head the organization.

"I think Brian was an excellent choice for the job," Gregory T. Angelo, chair of Log Cabin Republicans of New York, told EDGE before Ellner's announcement. "His run for Borough President in 2005 showed that he thought differently and could be a driving force for change in New York."

Richard Socarides, who advised former President Bill Clinton in the White House from 1993 to 1999, agreed.

"If that's where they go, he [Ellner] would be a terrific person for this job as someone seen as a leader in the LGBT community here in New York," he said.

Socarides questioned claims Ellner campaigned on an anti-Bloomberg platform in 2005.

"The mayor has a record separate and apart from Brian," added Socarides as he alluded to broader opposition to Bloomberg. "There are a lot of gay people who have supported Mayor Bloomberg; he's one of many. Outside a small group of Democratic Party activists who feel strongly that you should always support Democrats, the mayor's support in the gay community in New York is pretty strong."

The Pride Agenda did not indicate when their search for a new executive would end, but the organization's annual spring dinner will take place in Rochester on Saturday, May 22. And ESPA's board of directors is reportedly scheduled to meet earlier that day.