If elected, Charlie Ober would become the first openly gay elected official in the borough of Queens; but to do that, he has to take on the Queens machine…

New York has the largest LGBT community of any city in the United States and Democratic elected officials in the city actively seek the endorsement of LGBT Democratic clubs. There are now five openly LGBT members of the New York state legislature from Manhattan and even one from Staten Island. With the City Council now led by an openly lesbian Speaker, Christine Quinn — an all-but-declared candidate for mayor in 2009 — the visibility of the LGBT community has never been higher.

So it might come as a surprise to New Yorkers as well as others that an openly gay candidate would face homophobic attacks in his campaign for the City Council. But that is exactly what has happened to Charles Ober, who is running in the June 3 special election in the 30th Council district to replace Dennis Gallagher, the disgraced incumbent Republican who was forced out of office after accepting a plea bargain after being prosecuted for raping a 52-year-old grandmother.

The 30th district is one of only three out of 51 Council districts currently represented by a Republican — the other two being on Staten Island. But the powerful Queens County Democratic Party organization wants to change that and is supporting Elizabeth Crowley’s candidacy in the special all-party election on June 3. But the June 3 election is not a Democratic primary but rather a special election in which candidates from any party can compete, giving an independent Democrat like Charlie Ober a better chance to compete than he would have in a closed Democratic primary.

In closed party primaries, the candidate supported by the Queens County Democratic Party organization almost invariably wins, confirming the consensus among political observers that ‘Queens County,’ as the party organization is known in the borough, is the most powerful of the political machines in any of the five boroughs.

While described in the Queens press as “a former project director for the Consortium for Worker Education,” Elizabeth Crowley appears to have no qualifications for Council Member except for the fact that she is the cousin of U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY), who represents a large part of Queens in the House and who just happens to be the chair of the Queens County Democratic Party.

But in Queens, being the cousin of the party boss is enough of a qualification to get elected to any public office. and the candidates that the machine supports rarely lose to ‘insurgents,’ regardless of how qualified or well-funded those independent challengers might be. In fact, it was the late Tom Manton — Joe Crowley’s mentor and predecessor as Queens party boss — who put Christine Quinn in the Speaker’s chair, just as he had her predecessors, Peter Vallone, Sr. and Gifford Miller.

Along with several other activists, Charlie Ober and I co-founded Queens Pride House (a center for the LGBT communities of Queens) back in 1997 and Charlie served as president of the board of directors from 1999 until April 2008, when he stepped down to run for Council. Charlie has worked tirelessly for Pride House, which is now housed at the Diversity Center of Queens along with the Humanist Center of Queens and Andolan - Organizing South Asian Workers.

Charlie has also put in countless hours in unpaid volunteer labor for the Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association, the Ridgewood Democratic Club and the Queens Civic Congress. In contrast, there is no evidence that Elizabeth Crowley has ever volunteered for any civic organization in Queens or that she has any experience in community organizing or community service in any organization.

Politics may be a contact sport in New York, but I was shocked when I heard about the homophobic flyer circulated anonymously throughout the 30th district earlier this month. “You need to know that one of the candidates that is trying to get Dennis’ seat is a fagot [sic],” the flyer began, adding, “That is why God gave them all aids [sic] to die and rot in hell.” The rest of the text of the flyer continues in the same vein:

“We already have too many fagots [sic] trying to change the laws. We don’t need more queer’s [sic] here with his own agenda. I now have to worry that my children are not going to be safe and that a pedophile is going to be living here and be a part of my neighborhood. Imagine the village here in Glendale or Middle Village. Queerville USA 11385.”

Revealingly, when Republican Tom Ognibene joined Charlie Ober at a press conference to denounce the homophobic hate flyer, Elizabeth Crowley pointedly refused to criticize the homophobic content of the flyer, but instead criticized Charlie for joining a Republican at a press conference.

Because the flyer was unsigned and circulated anonymously, there is no way to trace it to the Crowley campaign or anyone else, but it is her campaign that presumably would stand to benefit most from the appeal to voters in the district who might be swayed by its homophobic content. At the very least, Elizabeth Crowley’s campaign against Dennis Gallagher in 2001 was marked by ethical misconduct.

“Crowley was not eligible for matching funds because of outstanding fines from campaign finance violations committed by her campaign during her bid for City Council in 2001 against ex-councilman Dennis Gallagher, whose April 18 resignation necessitated the special election,” the Queens Chronicle reported last week. “According to a CFB audit, the Crowley campaign was required to pay $56,267 in penalties, $22,207 of which was for exceeding expenditure limits,” Austin Considine reported news story that appeared in the Chronicle oo May 8. “Another $20,000 was for failure to adequately explain allegations of money order fraud — allegations the campaign denied,” Considine added.

Being a friend and long-time colleague of Charlie’s and having been active in the LGBT community for 12 years, I am obviously supporting Charlie in the 30th district election. But my larger concern goes beyond the Ober campaign to the question of how we do politics here in Queens. If Charlie Ober were to win the June 3 special election, he would become the first openly LGBT person elected to public offiice in the borough, and so his candidacy will be a real test for the LGBT community in Queens as well as of the ability of a progressive independent to win office in the borough.