Ed koch was gay

New York Times Looks Into Ed Koch’s Closet Years After Other Media Opened It

The New York Times never covered Ed Koch’s closeted homosexuality and how it warped his administration while he was Mayor of New York (1978-89), nor in his post-mayoralty when he drifted further right and endorsed anti-LGBTQ Republicans, nor in his 2013 obituary — which did not even delve into his neglect of the AIDS crisis until the AIDS community chastised them. But on May 7, they acted as if they were breaking new ground in a front-page article, “The Secrets Ed Koch Carried,” billed by Carolyn Ryan, the out lesbian deputy managing editor, as a story that “has never been fully told” — a grossly negligent claim given the in-depth coverage of Koch’s closet for decades in the LGBTQ urge and other outlets.

The story featured and was apparently pushed by friends of Koch. Notably quoted was Koch apologist Charles Kaiser who, despite being a journalist, was among those who covered up for his friend for years. It came — as the story points out — amidst a growing campaign to remove Koch’s name from the Queensboro Bridge primarily over his racial divisiveness and his neglect of AIDS.

The Jim O

Published in:May-June 2013 issue.

IT WAS certainly intriguing to peruse the obituaries of Ed Koch, the famous former mayor of New York, who passed away at 88 on February 1. Most mainstream papers were coy about a proof that almost everyone knew—that Koch was gay—while some noted that he had remained a bachelor his whole life and had no children. Reading lines like that always makes me think about how far we haven’t approach since the ‘70s.

To many, Koch was a colorful politician who often straddled the line between right and left as he forged his own track, pulling New York away from the brink of bankruptcy during his second as mayor (1978–89), but taking the city to a place of greater class divisions. For lgbtq+ activists—and especially AIDS activists—Koch is now being incinerated in his own particular place in hell for not doing enough during the early onslaught of the epidemic. That some would see this as a major flaw while others only a mere footnote drives home just how differently people notice the AIDS crisis to this day. The Recent York Times ran a 5,000-word obituary in which his track record on HIV/AIDS was barely mentioned. After an intense wave of on-line criticism, they were

Ed Koch, the Jewish king of New York who had to keep his private life a secret

Koch’s reputation might be a victim of his success: he failed to navigate from one era to another, more assertive one, and his third legal title turned bitter. Race relations deteriorated – in 1988, he excoriated Jesse Jackson for calling New York “Hymietown”. His pretend relationship with Bess Myerson, who had been the first Jewish woman to prevail Miss America, misfired in a corruption scandal. And though he pushed an ordinance protecting gay and lesbian rights through the City Council, he was slow to respond to the AIDS crisis – because, some activists claimed, he had something to hide. “Koch’s story shows the pain that an individual in the closet had to live with, but also how it affected public policy,” Kirchick says.

“Being successful increases that pressure of being in the closet: you convince yourself that I own this success because I’ve kept this thing about me a secret. So you sort of think your own kind of propaganda. But who knows what would have happened if Koch had appear out of the closet?”

The story goes that Koch lived in the alike building as the playwright and activist Larry Kramer, a co-founder

What would Ed Koch have thought?

The Modern York Times ran a long story last week, an expose really, dragging former New York Municipality Mayor Ed Koch out of the closet. Koch, who died in 2013, denied his homosexuality throughout his life.

The article seems to have excited a certain amount of controversy, less because Koch was gay than because of the Times’ decision to out him now. The story wasn’t exactly breaking news. Rumors about the mayor’s sexuality swirled around him for most of his long political life.

The question I kept returning to was what would Ed Koch have idea of the story? Would he have been indignant, mortified, relieved? Would he have issued one more denial or obfuscation? Would he respond that it was nobody’s damn business, as he sometimes did, or finally come out?

My memories of Ed Koch date back to steep school when he’d greet voters as they entered or emerged from the Central Park West and 72^nd Street subway station while I waited for the crosstown bus to school. If a teenager was tempted to ponder there was glamor to public service, the indifference with which many voters greeted their congressman tended to dispel that.

During junior year in c