With Alan Van Campelle’s exit from the top of Empire State Pride Agenda announced publicly in January, the search has been on for his replacement. Enter Brian Ellner, an aide to New York Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and one-time Manhattan borough president hopeful. [NYT]
Get Queerty Daily
Subscribe to Queerty for a daily dose of #entertainment #activism #activists stories and more2 Comments
Comments are closed.
Anonymous NYCer
Brian – who constantly criticized Bloomberg’s education policies during his borough president campaign, only to become a shill for those exact same policies upon joining the mayor’s administration – seems like an odd pick for an organization that has become increasingly critical of elected officials who don’t support us and in-your-face confrontational with electeds who let us down. I hope this is not a conscious decision by ESPA’s board to move in the direction of ineffective, HRC-style “can’t we just get along” politics.
Perhaps Brian will feel more able to rock the boat outside of government than inside it. I hope so. But I won’t hold my breath.
Donna
The challenges before Ellner are many and I applaud Anonymous NYCer for encouraging “don’t take no for an answer” fight for equality. With his track record at the DOE as an advocate for LGTB youth, Ellner’s certainly got the smarts to navigate across audiences, which he will put put to good use in this cause. He’s also a fighter with a personal stake in the job and won’t take anything less than marriage! His success will hinge upon a concerted effort – we need to get behind him and support ESPA.