Was ed koch 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 governance while he was Mayor of New York (), nor in his post-mayoralty when he drifted further right and endorsed anti-LGBTQ Republicans, nor in his obituary — which did not even delve into his neglect of the AIDS crisis until the AIDS group chastised them. But on May 7, they acted as if they were breaking new basis 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 press 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 ally for years. It came — as the story points out — amidst a growing campaign to remove Koch’s name from the Queensboro Bridg

NYTimes outs Ed Koch: Former NYC mayor was lonely and told friends 'I want a boyfriend' in his twilight years after secretly dating a Harvard-educated health consultant while pretending to date first Jewish Miss America

As calls approach to remove Ed Koch's name from New York's Queensboro Bridge over his abysmal handling of the AIDS epidemic of the s, it's been revealed that the colorful city mayor was secretly gay and terrified of being outed.

Koch, who never came out during his lifetime, was a popular NYC mayor during his three terms in office from to

But the New York Times reveals that Koch, who later became a TV individuality and political commentator, was lonely in his later years after pushing away his Harvard-educated health consultant boyfriend of many years in case it affected his political career.

He even tried to cover his sexuality and tackle the gay rumors which had begin to swirl around him by dating the first Jewish Miss America Bess Myerson while running for office.

The pair known as 'the candidate and the beauty queen' became inseparable, as they attended public

Published in:May-June issue.

IT WAS certainly intriguing to read the obituaries of Ed Koch, the famous former mayor of Recent York, who passed away at 88 on February 1. Most mainstream papers were coy about a fact 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 enjoy that always makes me think about how far we haven’t come since the ‘70s.

To many, Koch was a colorful politician who often straddled the line between right and left as he forged his own path, pulling New York away from the brink of bankruptcy during his time as mayor (–89), but taking the town to a place of greater class divisions. For queer activists—and especially AIDS activists—Koch is now being incinerated in his own extraordinary place in hell for not doing enough during the early onslaught of the epidemic. That some would notice this as a major flaw while others only a mere footnote drives home just how differently people notice the AIDS crisis to this evening. The New York Times ran a 5,word obituary in which his footpath record

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 designation turned bitter. Race relations deteriorated – in , he excoriated Jesse Jackson for calling New York “Hymietown”. His pretend intimacy with Bess Myerson, who had been the first Jewish woman to conquer 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 approach out of the closet?”

The story goe