The Manhattan Democratic club hosting the first mayoral debate for the 2021 election is excluding the only LGBTQ candidate — because she’s not liberal enough for them.
The Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club will host a “Meet the Next Mayor” forum by Zoom on Oct. 13.
Club leader Allen Roskoff has invited six candidates — Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, city Comptroller Scott Stringer, former de Blasio legal counsel Maya Wiley, former de Blasio Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, ex-Obama cabinet member Shaun Donovan and nonprofit leader Dianne Morales.
But Ret. Brigadier General Loree Sutton, de Blasio’s first Veterans Services commissioner, was sidelined from the event because she wants to mandate that protesters obtain permits before demonstrating in the Big Apple.
“That’s something that even Donald Trump hasn’t proposed,” Roskoff told The Post.
Sutton expressed her views in a July interview citing violent elements in the protests against the police killing of George Floyd and a filthy encampment that grew around City Hall over the summer.
“We’re not going to entertain somebody whose positions are diametrically opposed to what the Democratic Party should stand for,” Roskoff said.
Roskoff added that other likely mayoral candidates including Citigroup vice-chairman Raymond McGuire also weren’t included in the debate.
His group bills itself as “NYC’s progressive LGBTQ Democratic club.”
Sutton, who asked her wife Laurie Leitch to marry her at the city’s 2015 pride parade, is the only LGBTQ candidate in the race after City Council Speaker Corey Johnson dropped out of the crowded field last month citing a longtime personal struggle with depression.
Johnson is making introductory remarks at forum and did not return a request seeking comment about Sutton’s sidelining.
Sutton, who considers herself a moderate Democrat, decried her exclusion in a Post interview saying, “I think it’s outrageous and it doesn’t comport with what I consider liberal Democratic values.”
“I have to raise the question, I’m the only gay candidate and I’m the only military veteran in the group, so I have to wonder on what basis did Allen Roskoff determine who was acceptable for including?” the former Army psychiatrist asked.
Wendell Jamieson, senior advisor to her campaign, said Sutton is a “true, blue Democrat who, I assure you, holds many classically liberal views.
“But I’m sorry, she doesn’t think it’s cool to deface your city or set it on fire. She’d love to discuss her views but is being cut out of the conversation before it begins because she’s a different kind of candidate,” Jamieson said.
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