Same-Sex Marriage Advocate Joining NYC Government
Alan Van Capelle, the executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda since 2003 and the long-time leader of the effort in Albany for same-sex marriage, is leaving the post to become deputy comptroller for external affairs in the office of New York City Comptroller John Liu.
In his announcement, Liu said “Alan Van Capelle brings a record replete with effective activism and a focus on deliverables for all New Yorkers. I’ve watched him in action from near and afar and understand first-hand what he is capable of. Everyone on my team is excited to have him come on board.”
With Van Capelle at the helm, the Empire State Pride Agenda and its supporters put about $1 million into state Senate races in 2008 to help Democrats win the majority. But their efforts to get the Senate to legalize same-sex marriage failed in a vote in December.
“Alan has provided remarkable leadership for the Empire State Pride Agenda and New York’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community,” said Board Co-Chair Frank Selvaggi. “Our community has taken significant strides towards winning equality and justice this past decade.”
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Did Mr. van Capelle leave his position at the Pride Agenda voluntarily, or was he nudged toward the exit? I wonder.
Given the Pride Agenda’s ill-advised and disastrous (from the pro-same-sex marriage viewpoint) strategy of pushing same-sex marriage to a floor vote in the Senate last month without having the votes to pass it, it would seem that a parting of the ways would be more than appropriate from the organization’s perspective. If I were a same-sex marriage advocate and were on the board of ESPA, Alan van Capelle would have been history on December 3—the day after the Senate voted by a solid 38-24 margin to reject the proposed redefinition of marriage. If I were an ESPA donor, I would be asking some tough questions, like “You spent over a million dollars of our money on 2008 Senate races for THIS?” and “Why should I give you another cent?”
While many New Yorkers will not miss the polarized and antagonistic tone that van Capelle bears significant responsibility for creating on the marriage issue, those New Yorkers who oppose same-sex marriage still owe him a debt of gratitude for having unintentionally helped our cause. After alienating the Senate GOP by openly (and successfully) funding the Democrats’ efforts to push them out of the majority in 2008, van Capelle proceeded to ruffle the feathers of Democrats through his brazen efforts to strong-arm a same-sex marriage floor vote and through his unprofessional and confrontational remarks at the ESPA Fall Dinner last year (see http://gaycitynews.com/articles/2009/10/29/gay_city_news/news/doc4ae13f6e95ad1802595878.txt and http://chelseanow.com/articles/2009/12/14/gay_city_news/news/doc4afb5d9d38c14698879493.txt). (Frankly, van Capelle’s comments at the Fall Dinner raise questions about his overall mental stability.) Incredibly, it appears that van Capelle even managed to end up on questionable terms with Sen. Tom Duane—the LGBT community’s lone representative in the Senate (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2401895/posts). All of this has made efforts to defend an opposite-sex definition of marriage much easier.
Question: Now that Empire State Pride-
under van Capelle’s leadership-has placed a bull’s eye on the back of the GOP and has strained its relationships with its allies in the Democratic caucus, where will they go next? And who will they get to pay the bill? Will any donors (or any legislators) trust the organization again after the Senate debacle last month and the scorched-earth tactics that led to that debacle?I certainly don’t envy Alan van Capelle’s successor.
Comptroller for external affairs? What in hell does that mean? Is he a CPA, or is his job to raise money and votes for Mr. Liu at the public’s expense?
It is nice to see that a well qualified person is joining NYC government at a time of budget cut backs.
I am sure he will earn his salary doing the peoples business.
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