After promising a close friend he would officiate his same-sex wedding, Rudy Giuliani is reportedly dodging efforts to hold him to his word in the wake of New York’s landmark gay marriage law.
“I asked if he would marry us,” Howard Koeppel, who put Giuliani up in his home during a tough divorce with then-wife Donna Hanover, told the New York Post. “He said, ‘Howard, I don’t ever do anything that’s not legal. If it becomes legal in New York, you’ll be one of the first ones I would marry.’”
Well, it’s legal now. And Koeppel is eager to have the state recognize his marriage to his longtime partner. But he says Giuliani is no longer returning his calls and his spokesman isn’t responding to the Post’s requests for comment.
“It seems like a lot of people he was close to become persona non grata,” Koeppel observed.
Giuliani says he’s still considering a longshot presidential bid this year and his hesitance to embrace his old friend could be related. The former New York mayor’s support for gay rights (although not marriage), was a major weak point with social conservatives during his disastrous 2008 run and his stay with Koeppel was widely cited in the press. He tacked to the right in his rhetoric on the issue during his presidential bid and enraged gay rights groups further by explicitly condemning gay marriage in 2009 amid speculation he might run for governor.
Gay rights activists did their best to hold him to his old positions, however. In 2007, a group called Gays For Giuliani ran comedic ads in South Carolina to try and force him to explain his record to the state’s socially conservative electorate.
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
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