About 100 activists, angered that two wealthy NYC gay real estate developers held a dinner lauding Sen. Ted Cruz, protested the pair’s main property, the OUT NYC Hotel.
Exactly one week after Mati Weiderpass and Ian Reisner hosted a dinner for Republican Senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz, about 100 activists descended on the OUT NYC Hotel to protest its owners. Weiderpass and Reisner founded Parkview Developers, which owns The OUT hotel, about three dozen other NYC properties, and the majority of the land in the Fire Island Pines.
While the businessmen claimed it was not a fundraiser, Reisner had held a fundraiser recently for GOP Senator Ron Johnson, and Cruz was in New York that evening attending a reported five or six fundraisers. Cruz is not known to be friends of the men, and not known to have any other social or professional ties to them. As he tours the nation to strengthen his 2016 war chest, a dinner with Cruz can cost up to a half-million dollars.
LOOK:Â ‘A Terrible Mistake’: Embattled NYC Gay Developers Forced To Issue Apologies For Hosting Ted Cruz
Protestors chanted “don’t Cruz here,” “boycott, sell out,” and “shame, shame, shame.”
Well-known veteran journalists and activists Ann Northrop and Andy Humm, who for decades have together hosted Gay USA, were at the protest.
Northrop was filmed calling Weiderpass and Reisner “sellouts.”
And Humm made his own strong statement:
Queer Nation reported on Facebook a total of 130 were present overall, and noted “The Out NYC action was sponsored by Gay USA, the Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn, the Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club of Queens, the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, and the Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC. Queer Nation helped.”
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Video and photo, top, by Brandon Cuicchi‎
Vine videos by danielleiat
Photo of Andy Humm by Queer Nation
Hat tip:Â Boycott Fire Island Pines Establishments & Out NYC Hotel
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