New York City Mayor Eric Adams has appointed a controversial pastor with an ugly history of espousing anti-gay and transphobic views to a choice role in his administration, and, understandably, members of the LGBTQ community aren’t happy about it.
Rev. Erick Salgado, a failed politician who ran for New York City mayor in 2013 as a far right-leaning Democrat, will serve as assistant commissioner in the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), New York Daily News reports.
His anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion platform in 2013 earned him an endorsement from the antigay hate group National Organization for Marriage, a nonprofit formed for the sole purpose of opposing same-sex marriage.
During a candidate forum, Salgado criticized his opponents for marching in Pride parade, and sold himself as the “only one who did not march” and as “the only one who [is] willing to say in public that I only believe in traditional marriage.”
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In fact, not only did he not march in the Pride parade, he organized a march in the Bronx to protest the city’s decision to legalize gay marriage in 2011.
But it gets worse.
Not only that, in 2013 Salgado objected to the Parks Department erecting statues in the Sheepshead Bay Holocaust Memorial Park in honor of non-Jewish victims of the Nazis, including LGBTQ people, calling it “a betrayal of the community and even worse, disrespectful to the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust.”
In addition to his anti-LGBTQ comments, the Adams appointee, who was also part of the mayor’s transition team, authored a transphobic tweet in 2016 attacking then-Mayor Bill de Blasio for enacting transgender-inclusive bathroom policies that still remains up on his Twitter page today:
“Bill DeBlasio wants you to allow your daughters to share the bathroom with a transgendered [sic],” he wrote. “Shame on him.”
Bill DeBlasio wants you to allow your daughters to share the bathroom with a transgendered. Shame on him.
— Erick Salgado (@ErickSalgadoNYC) March 7, 2016
A quick scroll through Salgado’s account also shows he has posted a number of pictures of himself with Adams over the years, referring to him as his “good friend” and praising his leadership…
I want to thank Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adam for welcome me today at Brooklyn Borohall. What a great leader! pic.twitter.com/rL8NDeXaVt
— Erick Salgado (@ErickSalgadoNYC) March 19, 2014
Together with my good friend, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams at the Three King Day Parade. pic.twitter.com/o7QI3zAVMY
— Erick Salgado (@ErickSalgadoNYC) January 11, 2015
Yesterday I had a visit by my good friend Brooklyn Boro President Eric Adams pic.twitter.com/AYxrgTSlX4
— Erick Salgado (@ErickSalgadoNYC) March 7, 2018
In another tweet, Adams is seen cutting the ribbon at Salgado’s new church:
Yesterday I was honored to had Brooklyn BP Eric Adams cutting the Ribbon @ the opening ceremony of our new Church at 7604 13th Ave Brooklyn pic.twitter.com/pj6zgHlo22
— Erick Salgado (@ErickSalgadoNYC) April 29, 2018
Another shows the two together for the Columbus Day Parade back in 2018:
It was a honor to march with Brooklyn Boro President Eric Adams & Assemblyman Bill Colton in our Colombus Day Parade https://t.co/zbVicWtYfE pic.twitter.com/146TUpDpTy
— Erick Salgado (@ErickSalgadoNYC) October 8, 2018
“I am proud to serve in this administration under the leadership of Mayor Adams and share his long-held values of tolerance and inclusion,” Salgado said in a statement released by the mayor’s press office.
“My views have evolved as society has evolved. As MOIA assistant commissioner, my mission will be to lift up immigrant communities across our city, including LGBTQ+ immigrants, who often face barriers to accessing needed services.”
As if all that wasn’t bad enough, Adams is also reportedly considering appointing former New York City Councilman Fernando Cabrera to a “faith-based” position in the administration, after backing off a previous plan to appoint him as the city’s top mental health official after his anti-LGBTQ views came to light, including once expressing support for a Ugandan law that would have seen gay people executed.
Here’s what folx on Twitter are saying about Salgado’s appointment…
And that's not the only homophobe that has been appointed by our Mayor:
Erick Salgado is the new Assistant Commissioner of Outreach at the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs. https://t.co/fDvfQzqGD8
— ??? (@s_phia_) February 17, 2022
Eric Adams is showing us who he is: homophobic and transphobic. He is creating a hostile work environment for queer and trans people working in these agencies and not to mention THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
— ??? (@s_phia_) February 17, 2022
Despicable.
— Jared Chausow (@jchausow) February 17, 2022
?@NYCMayorsOffice? Eric Adams must be #Homophobic. Controversial NYC minister Erick Salgado named to top City Hall job – New York Daily News https://t.co/5kH65591AP
— Real NYPD Blue @Detective4Life re-born aka E-man (@TrailerTrash911) February 18, 2022
Cam
The mayor should check to see what happened to all of the former councilmen and elected officials that were anti-LGBTQ. They were voted out.
Fname Optional Lname
The LGBTQ community in NY has clout and their voices get heard. They don’t always get what they want but their platform is respected.
Mack
Unfortunately he’s there for 4 years unless there is some way to get. him out. And we’ve all seen what damage an idiot can do in 4 years.
BarryM
Eric Adams did say he was “a different type of Democrat.”
Ronbo
Barry, Adams is a different kind of Democrat – the conservative kind. Many here are too young to remember that there was a “third-way” movement within the party in the 90’s which objective was to elect conservatives as Democrats.
Look to the passage of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the “Defense of Marriage Act” and the outsourcing of jobs in NAFTA to profit WallStreet – not Main Street. Unfortunately, a LOT of baby boomers bought into the idiocy of the Reagan Revolution to the Right. We are still trying to recover.
GentlemanCaller
This mayor is a disaster. Bad choice, NYC.
dhmonarch89
Wasn’t Adams a cop originally? If so- not surprised a cop would have anti gay leanings (you don’t buddy up to people like that unless you harbor those feelings as well.)
Kangol2
Adams was also Brooklyn Borough (the most populous in NYC) president and has been outspoken in his pro-LGBTQ actions and affirmation. He also has criticized his fellow cops. He is more centrist than people think, though.
Ronbo
Kangol2, where should I search to find such views from Adams? I just did a quick search and there are many comments from Adams that are anti-LGBTQ. I searched “mayor adams pro-lgbtq” and found no “pro-lgbtq” comments or stories in the first three pages of results.
I’m not questioning his positions or your thoughts, I just want to see what you base your opinion upon.
wikidBSTN
If someone publicly states that their position has evolved along with that of society’s and he is now for inclusion and specifically states that includes the LGBTQ community, then let’s give him a chance. A cautious chance – but chance.
One way or the other, we will see it, or not see it, in his coming actions
Heywood Jablowme
It won’t be long before Salgado says or tweets something offensive enough, or just plain dumb enough, to be an excuse for Adams to fire him.
Kangol2
Salgado claims his position has “evolved” blah blah but this is really just a gift to the conservative Latino voters who supported Adams, who won his election in a landslide. Adams himself is very pro-LGBTQ and has a number of pro-LGBTQ people in his administration, but apparently he felt he had to give the conservative Dems a voice too. And there’s another right-wing, anti-LGBTQ “Democratic” Latino minister, Cabrera, whom Adams also tried to appoint until there was an outcry. Apparently he may still be a candidate for a position in the administration.
inbama
Exactly.
Previous administrations had to give a job to the equally loathsome Reuben Diaz, Sr.
cuteguy
Gee, what a shock. The black guy hates gay ppl. This is where a nut job would call me racist and ignore the fact that this guy wants to take your rights away from you.
Kangol2
“The black guy,” i.e., Mayor Eric Adams, does not hate gay people. He is openly and avowedly pro-LGBTQ. When he was Brooklyn Borough president he regularly and actively supported LGBTQ politicians, projects, you name it. This appointment is a sop to a segment of his voters. He won the New York mayor’s post primarily because of Black and Latinx voters, and White liberals. He had massive support in the Bronx, Manhattan, and of course, Brooklyn. But he does not hate gay people. This reverend, on the other hand, is another story.
cuteguy
Last time I checked the reverend is a black guy. Case dismissed
Ronbo
Kangol2, where can we find such details? I have not followed Adams and now searching, I find much more anti-LGBTQ actions. I measure actions as opposed to words – as they are often in conflict.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
The position of assistant in the world of politics is a position given to those whom need to be shut up by the person(s) currently in power. Only a person in desperate need of income plays second, third or fourth fiddle, not a person who matters.
Den
“My views have evolved as society has evolved. As MOIA assistant commissioner, my mission will be to lift up immigrant communities across our city, including LGBTQ+ immigrants, who often face barriers to accessing needed services.”
New York City has a large and vocal LGBT community, as well as a large percentage of liberal & progressive voters. If Salgado does things or says things that belie his comment above, there will be hell to pay for Adams. And I am sure Adams Knows that. But New York is made up of so many different communities with so many different viewpoints, any NYC politician has to constantly walk a tightrope while juggling cats (except perhaps on Staten Island where the more regressive the better ;-)).