Ian Reisner is one of two gay businessmen who have come under fire for hosting Ted Cruz at a private campaign event in their Manhattan apartment.
Politicians aren't the only ones suffering from whiplash over the rapid change in public sentiment on LGBT issues during the last handful of years. New York businessmen Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass, who co-own the LGBT-friendly hotel Out NYC, have no doubt been taken by surprise at the fury
over their dinner party last week for Ted Cruz.
The same day the New York Times report first surfaced, an effort to boycott the two entrepreneur's establishments arose on Facebook and now counts over 9,000 likes. The boycott also includes a strip of properties Reisner recently bought at the very gay-popular Fire Island Pines resort. Both Reisner and Weiderpass have since gone into full damage control. Here's Reisner's latest effort, an apology posted to his Facebook wall:
That was cold comfort to one his commenters, John Selig,
who responded this way:
"It is your responsibility to carefully vet any politician before lending your support. I live in Texas and suffer continued hatred from Ted Cruz and his followers. You have made them stronger and more successful. At best, you are a fool."
The entire imbroglio highlights the divide between big-city gays and those who reside in less progressive parts of the country. It may be all too easy for some to sit in a Manhattan high-rise and find common ground on foreign policy with a blatant homophobe like Ted Cruz, even as his anti-gay efforts ravage the lives of LGBT Americans in his home state and elsewhere.
For more on the fallout, please head below the fold.
Weiderpass, for his part, posted a statement to his Facebook page emphasizing the event was "NOT A FUNDRAISER" and claiming Cruz's appearance there and the documentation of it would make it harder for him to be elected.
"Those facts are difficult to reconcile with his stance on gay issues -- Ted's far right anti-gay supporters are screaming now," he wrote.
Weiderpass's effort was perhaps less well-received than the full-throated apology by Reisner, judging by the fact that he only received 10 likes to Reisner's 205. Weiderpass has now issued his own apology, saying, "I share in Ian's remorse."
Cruz also tried to make amends with the party faithful last weekend in Iowa by trumpeting his opposition to same-sex marriage. Reporter Maggie Haberman, who originally broke the story last week, wrote Monday that Cruz claimed to have stressed his marriage stance at the event.
Mr. Cruz, who is hoping to appeal to evangelical voters in the Iowa caucuses, said he had voiced his strong religious opposition to same-sex marriage at the dinner.
That account completely conflicts with the recollection of a couple attendees at the event. They said Cruz only mentioned that he believed the issue should be decided by the states.
And that may have been one of the main problems for Weiderpass and Reisner. Fundraiser or not, they seemed to have glossed over the Texas senator's crusade against LGBT Americans. The reporting suggested that, far from being grilled on his LGBT stances by attendees, he was only asked whether he would continue to love his daughters if one of them came out to him as gay.
“Ted Cruz said, ‘If one of my daughters was gay, I would love them just as much,’” recalled Mr. Reisner.
If the gays in that Manhattan penthouse were placated by that rather basic affirmation, some LGBT residents in Texas, among other places, clearly weren't.
