New York City Council Speaker Christine
Quinn first acknowledged she's gay to herself in college.
In a cover story for New York
magazine, Quinn discussed coming out.
She said she came out to herself in “a
fairly non-coming-outy-way” in college.
“I actually remember being in my dorm
room and saying out loud, 'You are not going to have this problem,'”
she
recalled.
“I was in the super-duperest gay
environment ever – and, look, at 25, it becomes hard to keep it
tucked away.”
Quinn, who married her wife Kim Catullo
last year, is considered a leading candidate to become the Democratic
nominee for mayor. Her campaign has the
support of Empire State Pride Agenda, New York's leading gay
rights advocate. And last week, the
Human Rights Campaign (HRC) also threw its support behind Quinn.
Catullo told the magazine that she has
tried to talk Quinn out of running for the job.
“But I realize the significance of it
on so many levels if she wins, and that's the only thing that gets me
past it: the impact it could have on women. And New Yorkers. And
gays!” she said.
On crying after lawmakers in Albany
rejected a gay marriage bill in 2009, Quinn said she got upset
because “what happened is that people had a choice to vote yes in a
way that would have helped my life, and they voted no, and that
created the risk that two 83-year-old men wouldn't get to be at their
daughters' wedding.”