Margarita López is a former member of the

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs. The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...

who represented

New York City's 2nd City Council district New York City's 2nd City Council district is one of 51 districts in the New York City Council. It has been represented by Democrat Carlina Rivera since 2018, succeeding term-limited fellow Democrat Rosie Méndez. Geography District 2 is based in ...

from 1998 to 2005. The 2nd district comprises the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

, Alphabet City, and the East Village. López was elected to the Council in 1997. Born in Puerto Rico, she relocated to New York City in 1978. A Democrat, she was the only openly gay Puerto Rican politician on the City Council for some time. During her years of political service, she has particularly emphasized increasing city services, renovating neighborhood libraries, and championing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights. In 2005, López entered the race to succeed

C. Virginia Fields Clara Virginia Fields better known as C. Virginia Fields (née Clark; born August 6, 1945) is an American activist who served as Borough President of Manhattan. She was elected in 1997 and reelected in 2001, with her second term expiring at the ...

as Manhattan Borough President. Due to a series of articles published in the '' New York Post,'' she came under fire for connections to the controversial

Church of Scientology The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a scientology as a business, bu ...

, whose members donated sizeable amounts of money to her campaign. Due at least in part to the bad press generated by these stories and the Church of Scientology's views on homosexuality, she lost the Democratic primary election to win her party's endorsement for the general election in November of that year. Democratic candidate Scott Stringer won both the primary and later the general election. In 2006, Mayor

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...

appointed López to a seat on the board of the New York City Housing Authority. López, who once was a critic of Bloomberg, endorsed the mayor in his re-election campaign against Fernando Ferrer, the second Puerto Rican politician to run for mayor of the city ( Herman Badillo was the first). She was succeeded in her previous councilmember position by Rosie Méndez.

References

External links

Interview with ''New York Latino Journal''

Activists from New York City American politicians of Puerto Rican descent Puerto Rican people in New York (state) politics Hispanic and Latino American women in politics Lesbian politicians American LGBT city council members LGBT people from New York (state) Puerto Rican LGBT people American LGBT rights activists Living people New York City Council members Hispanic and Latino American New York City Council members Women New York City Council members New York (state) Democrats People from San Juan, Puerto Rico Year of birth missing (living people) {{PuertoRico-bio-stub

See also

References

External links