(New York, NY) Today, Senator Brad Hoylman (SD-27) announced his support for Adriano Espaillat in the NY-13 Congressional Primary. This is the latest in an unbroken string of endorsements since Espaillat announced his candidacy last month at the United Palace Theatre. Today’s endorsement comes on the heels of the first major union endorsement in the race from the Transport Workers Union Local 100.
“I’m proud to endorse Senator Adriano Espaillat for Congress because he stands up to powerful special interests on behalf of vulnerable New Yorkers,” Brad Hoylman, State Senator said. “Undocumented immigrants, seniors, farm workers, low income New Yorkers, and LGBT families, children and seniors have all benefited from his passionate and effective advocacy. The LGBT Community will be lucky to have him in Congress because he’s demonstrated his mettle on issues like marriage equality, protecting our kids from bullying and supporting LGBT seniors. In Washington, I know he’ll continue his fight for a more fair and just society.”
“I am excited Senator Brad Hoylman, is joining the diverse coalition of support our campaign is building,” Adriano Espaillat said. “I am proud to have been on the front lines time and time again for the LGBT community – casting my vote for marriage equality the first time the bill came to the floor of the Assembly in 2007. We’ve had tremendous success since passing marriage equality and on LGBT reforms here in New York, and it’s time to bring new energy to the movement in Washington. I am overwhelmingly proud to have Brad’s support, united, we can fight for the basic human rights all New Yorkers deserve.”
Espaillat is a staunch supporter and co-sponsor of the NYS Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (S.195-B), and will be an equally strong supporter of federal trans-inclusive GENDA legislation in Congress. He has also consistently championed marriage equality, and worked to build support within the Latino community in advance of its successful 2011 vote. He voted for marriage equality in 2007 during the bill’s first floor vote in the Assembly.
Espaillat is far outpacing his rivals with key endorsements from the Transport Workers Union Local 100, New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Senator Gustavo Rivera (SD-33), Assemblymembers Karim Camara (AD-43) and Gabriela Rosa (AD-72), Council Members Mark Levine (CD-7) and Ydanis Rodriguez (CD-10), the Barack Obama Democratic Club of Upper Manhattan, and the Democratic Club of El Barrio & East Harlem.
In Congress, Adriano Espaillat Will:
- Fight for Immigration Reform that Includes Full LGBT Equality: This includes the more than 250,000 LGBT undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., who are more likely to be sexually assaulted and mistreated in INS detention centers than the general immigrant population. LGBT immigrants are also often afraid to speak out against discrimination against their sexual orientation in the workplace because immigration status. And while 80 countries worldwide continue to criminalize homosexuality, the U.S. has only a one-year deadline for immigrants applying for asylum, and 1 in 5 are rejected for missing this arbitrary cutoff.
- Champion Affordable and Low-income Housing: Affordable and low-income housing is disappearing in our community, and longtime residents are being driven from their homes. Adriano Espaillat led the fight to renew and strengthen New York State’s tenant protection laws, and he will bring the same determined focus to Washington.
- Empower our District Through Immigration Reform: Immigration reform is a defining civil rights issue of our time. Espaillat believes the time is now to fix our broken immigration laws and bring over 11 million Americans out of the shadows. The current system has split families apart, and left Latino, Caribbean, and African immigrant communities in the 13th congressional District vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
- Make Economic Development about the Community: Espaillat believes that economic development isn’t successful if current residents are left behind. Espaillat will fight to shift public subsidies from the big box chain stores paying minimum wage salaries to existing small and minority owned businesses looking to grow, and local entrepreneurs who need capital to get started.
- Fight for Healthcare & An End to Health Disparities in Communities of Color: From diabetes, to obesity, to childhood asthma, Upper Manhattan and the Bronx residents have urgent needs that are not being met in Washington. Espaillat will push to prioritize federal research, education and grant funding towards targeting low-income communities of color to close the minority health disparity gap for children and seniors alike.
More About 13th District Congressional Candidate Adriano Espaillat:
- Adriano Espaillat got his start as a community activist in Northern Manhattan, and currently serves in the New York State Senate. In the legislature, he quickly distinguished himself as a reformer and progressive fighter who has stood up for working families.
- In 2011, Espaillat led the fight to renew New York State’s tenant protection laws, which were set to expire that year. Espaillat’s advocacy safeguarded over 1 million units of affordable housing, and earned new protections for over 2.5 million people, including the creation of the Tenant Protection Unit to stop harassment and abuse.
- As Chair of the Senate Latino Conference, Espaillat has championed state-based immigration reforms, including: legislation allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, the DREAM Act, and the Farmworkers Bill of Rights.
- Espaillat has been a vocal advocate for tenants, consumers, veterans, immigrants and local businesses. He has championed marriage equality and civil rights issues, and efforts to protect our environment from hydrofracking and other dangers.He has passed laws preserving affordable housing, giving low-income day care the right to organize and obtain health care, and sponsored measures to improve hospital translation services. He established a higher education scholarship fund for relatives of the victims of American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed on November 12, 2001.
More About 27th District State Senator Brad Hoylman:
- State Senator Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) has already made a mark in Albany in his first year of office. He authored two important public health bills that were signed into law recently by Governor Cuomo, including one that expands access to the meningitis vaccine in the wake of a deadly outbreak of the disease in NYC, and another that mandates a study of urgent care centers, which have proliferated since the closing and consolidation of hospitals across the city.
- In addition, Brad has been a champion on such issues as campaign finance and ethics reform, public education, affordable housing and economic development. He was named one of the “New Generation 2013” of legislators by the New York League of Conservation Voters and received the highest score from Environmental Advocates. Brad has been a leader on funding programs for homeless youth, fighting for transgender rights, and improving access to programs and drugs to combat HIV infection.
- He is the prime senate sponsor of legislation that would legalize surrogacy in New York, and recently authored a report calling for an audit of the state Hate Crimes Law.
- Brad represents New York’s 27th State Senate District, which covers Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown, Upper West Side, Lower East Side, East Village and Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village. He is a former nonprofit lawyer and served as the chair of Manhattan Community Board 2. Brad graduated from Harvard Law School and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar. He and his husband, David Sigal, live in Greenwich Village with their three-year-old daughter, Silvia.
