Christine Quinn
Christine Quinn
Christine Callaghan Quinnis an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she formerly served as the Speaker of the New York City Council. The third person to hold this office, she is the first female and first openly gay speaker. As City Council speaker, Quinn was New York City's third most powerful public servant, behind the mayor and public advocate. She ran to succeed Michael Bloomberg as the city's mayor in the 2013 mayoral election, but she came in...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth25 July 1966
CityGlen Cove, NY
CountryUnited States of America
We voted to make it so that people who are registered domestic partners, members of civil unions or gay marriages from other jurisdictions, will now be recognized as registered New York city domestic partners,
I'm a lesbian. Yup. Hundred percent. Hundred percent. I remember being in college, and I had fallen in love with this woman, and I remember sitting in my dorm room saying out loud to myself, like, 'You have enough problems. You are not gonna let this happen.' You just kinda, like, stuff it away until - well, some people stuff it away forever.
When I was running for speaker, people would go out of their way to point out why I wasn't going to win: 'You're a woman, you're too liberal, you're gay, you're from the West Side of Manhattan,' which in that context was an insult.
To get things done, you have to get people together.
People have said I can come off a little trial-lawyerish. I tell people I never actually became a lawyer, but I play one at City Hall.
Cliven Bundy is breaking the law. He's breaking the law and he wants all of us to pay for his cattle while he's ranting about people who are part of social welfare programs.
I just want people to know you can get through stuff. I hope people can see that in what my life has been and where it is going.
I hope there is nothing about me that people have a big problem with. You know, I like to think of myself as lovable.
When you stand up there and do a press conference, it's a very preoccupied moment. You're standing in front of cameras; people are watching you; it's not so easy to be at ease.
People used to feel oddly empowered to tell me all the reasons I couldn't win. Because I was a woman. Because I was a lesbian. Because I was from the West Side of Manhattan.
These businesses puff up their profits by not offering benefits, ... And at lunch, they give their workers an extra half hour to register on a public health insurance program.
Things are much better organized than they ever were, ... They are using their resources more effectively and actually moving toward being no kill.
I've already begun to put pilot programs in place that give CUNY grads opportunities to get good tech jobs. We should expand on that so that New Yorkers are getting those jobs, because those jobs are probably one of the biggest 21st Century pathways into the middle class.
Sometimes I yell, sometimes I raise my voice. I am trying to do it less, because it's not always attractive. It's not always the right thing to do.