Should a Straight Person Represent Stonewall’s City Council District?

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Should a Straight Person Represent Stonewall’s City Council District?

In a special election on Manhattan’s West Side, home to major L.G.B.T.Q. sites and institutions and many gay residents, a straight person could win for the first time since 1991.

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Lindsey Boylan and Carl Wilson are competing to represent Manhattan’s Third District in the City Council.

By

Liam Stack

April 24, 2026,

5:02 a.m. ET

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For almost 40 years, a stretch of Manhattan’s West Side from Greenwich Village to Hell’s Kitchen has had a gay representative in the City Council, reflecting the district’s large L.G.B.T.Q. population and its role in history as the site of the Stonewall riots, a pivotal moment in the gay and transgender rights movement.

But a special election next Tuesday may see a straight person elevated to the Council seat for the first time in decades, after

Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed Lindsey Boylan

, an activist who was also the first

woman to accuse former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of sexual harassment

.

Mr. Mamdani’s endorsement has injected questions of ideology and identity into a contest that previously attracted little attention and raised questions about how important it is to the voters in the Council’s Third District, and to the city at large, to elect an L.G.B.T.Q. person to the seat.

It has also drawn the race into a broader conflict between Mr. Mamdani and Julie Menin, the Council speaker and a more moderate Democrat. Ms. Menin has endorsed Carl Wilson, a community activist and legislative aide who is gay.

Mr. Mamdani’s endorsement came just before the start of early voting and quickly elevated Ms. Boylan, a democratic socialist, in a contest that had previously been dominated by Mr. Wilson, who had secured a wide range of endorsements and said he planned to join the Council’s progressive caucus if elected.

The mayor’s decision to wade into the race has upset some gay activists, including Allen Roskoff, 76, who successfully pushed to create what he called a “gay winnable” Council seat in 1991.

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