(David McGlynn)
KIN WAR: Christine Quinn, in a lesbian marriage with Kim Catullo (left), shot back at an insinuation by Chirlane McCray, the wife of Democratic mayoral rival Bill de Blasio (inset), that because she has no children, she’s unqualified to speak on child-rearing issues. (
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Now it’s personal.
A fierce war of words erupted in the Democratic race for mayor yesterday after Public Advocate Bill de Blasio’s wife suggested that his main rival — a lesbian who is married but has no children — couldn’t relate to child-care issues.
While the published quote by Chirlane McCray was later corrected, the substance of her comments sparked outrage for its harsh implications about City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
“She’s not the kind of person I feel I can go up to and talk to about issues like taking care of children at a young age,” McCray was quoted as saying in Maureen Dowd’s New York Times column yesterday.
Quinn, who last year married her longtime companion, Kim Catullo, repudiated the comments both before and after the printed quote was corrected, arguing that the message was the same.
“It was hurtful to think that somehow, the integrity of our lives and the integrity of the decisions we make about our lives or our family were called into question by other people in a political context,” Quinn said after the correction.
“It made me really sad. It didn’t make me mad — it made me sad that the political attacks in this race have gotten to that level.”
De Blasio’s campaign insisted that the misquoting of McCray rendered the whole kerfuffle moot, and released a transcript of her interview as proof.
“I don’t see her speaking to the concerns of women who have to take care of children at a young age or send them to school and after school, paid sick days, workplace. She is not speaking to any of those issues,” the transcript quotes McCray as saying.
“And she is not accessible. She is not the kind of person that I feel that you can go up and talk to and have a conversation with about those things, and I suspect that other women feel the same thing I’m feeling.”
De Blasio’s campaign’s manager, Bill Hyers, insisted the new phrasing shows McCray merely pointed out Quinn’s unwillingness to listen to people on those issues.
“Any suggestion otherwise is disingenuous and absurd,” he said.
Yet critics piled on throughout the day to denounce what they perceived to be a wildly personal attack.
“I don’t remember anyone saying the candidates can’t be effective advocates for the poor just because they themselves aren’t making minimum wage. Or fighters for the elderly if they aren’t old,” said Sonia Ossorio, president of the city’s National Organization for Women, which has endorsed Quinn.
Even supporters of Bill Thompson, another leading contender in the Democratic primary, called on McCray to apologize.
“As someone who has spent my entire career working on behalf of children, I couldn’t help but be terribly offended by the comments Bill de Blasio’s wife made about Christine Quinn and children,” said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who is also openly gay.
“For lesbians of my generation, having kids was never an option, which makes McCray’s comments especially unfair and hurtful.”
A spokeswoman for the Times said Dowd “realized she had truncated the quote and immediately asked her editors to fix it.”
Speaking to Politico.com, Dowd blamed the foul-up on the combination of a noisy coffee shop and a lousy tape recorder.
After last night’s mayoral debate, McCray defended her remarks.
“It was not personal. I was speaking from my heart about all the woman and families . . . who need pre-K, who need paid sick leave,” she said. “Given who I am and my history it was kind of silly,” McCray added, a reference to her own lesbian past.
Meanwhile, de Blasio’s camp put out a commercial highlighting Quinn’s support for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.