Carolyn M. Pride 
For the second time this spring, a New York City institution is facing a backlash over a conservative jewish conferencelong planned, due to one of its star speakers: Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida.
In May, the Museum of Jewish Heritage waived an interim rental agreement to host the event. Now Chelsea Piers, a leisure complex with large event space at its Manhattan site and which hosted the conference on Sunday, is widely criticized by elected officials and activist groups who say Mr DeSantis should not have speak on a site that has played an important role in New York’s LGBTQ history.
Earlier this year, DeSantis signed legislation banning classroom discussions about gender identity and sexual orientation for certain age groups in Florida schools, known to opponents as the Bill “Don’t Say Gay” law.
The event, the Jewish Leadership Conference, was organized by the Tikvah Fund, a conservative Jewish organization, which said it invited Mr. DeSantis to deliver a speech on the vibrancy of Jewish life in Florida.
But when the Museum of Jewish Heritage learned of Mr. DeSantis’ attendance, its leadership pulled out of the event, telling Tikvah that the legislation was not in line with its values of inclusivity.
Tikvah then arranged to hold the conference at Chelsea Piers and publicly accused the museum of engaging in cancel culture in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. Sports complex officials were unaware of the dispute with the museum before this essay was published on May 5, a spokesperson said.
Now, faced with the threat of boycotts and protests outside the event on Sunday, the recreation complex finds itself at the center of an acute dispute that touches on issues of identity, inclusivity, religion and freedom of expression. And it has left Chelsea Piers in a dilemma that is in many ways emblematic of the tense – and intensely political – national conversation over whether people with views some consider abhorrent or dangerous should be given a platform. .
“Ultimately, Chelsea Piers provides a venue to spread hatred towards the LGBTQ community and that is unacceptable on many levels, including that it’s Pride and it’s Chelsea, the heart of the community,” said State Senator Brad Hoylman. , the Manhattan Democrat who represents the area. He helped lead calls for Chelsea Piers to cancel the event, which also featured speech by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ron Dermer, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States.
On Friday, Chelsea Piers responded to the outcry by saying it would not cancel the event and that it does not control the opinions expressed by those who rent its event spaces. Instead, he said he would donate the money he received from the event to “groups that protect LGBTQ+ communities, and encourage and amplify productive debates on LGBTQ+ issues.”
“We couldn’t disagree more strongly with many of Ron DeSantis’ actions in office,” he said in an unsigned email to staffers. “One response to heinous behavior is to counter it with positive action.”
A spokesperson for Mr. DeSantis declined to address the controversy and instead described the governor as a champion of religious freedom and a friend of Israel.
“He stood up for religious Floridians and their right to gather and practice their religion despite attempts by the left to lock down places of worship,” the campaign said. “The governor will always stand up for what is right and will not be deterred by the radical left.”
Eric Cohen, chief executive of the Tikvah Fund, declined to comment on the latest round of controversy on Friday, writing in an email that he was choosing to focus “on the event itself” and that the group was looking forward to it. “An important event”. conference, with about twenty speakers, on the major issues facing the Jewish people, America, Israel and the West.
In an interview last month, after the conference ended without a venue, Mr. Cohen dismissed the idea that Tikvah was hosting a partisan program.
“Our event does not endorse any candidate or serve any political party,” Mr. Cohen said. “It’s all about ideas.”
Chelsea Piers’ decision to donate money to LGBTQ groups has not appeased critics. A group of protesters gathered outside Pier 60, where the event was being held, on Sunday, including Mr. Hoylman, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney and other elected officials.
The New York City Gay Hockey Association, which has been based at Chelsea Piers for more than two decades, wrote a letter to the resort’s management, saying its members felt “disappointment, sadness and even revulsion.” He demanded the cancellation of the event.
“The Museum of Jewish Heritage has declined to host this event,” the group’s board wrote. “We wish Pier 60 had approached this with the same scrutiny and respect for the community it serves, as well as the wider Chelsea Piers community.”
Other groups are canceling upcoming events at Chelsea Piers. Rich Ferraro, spokesperson for GLAAD, the LGBTQ advocacy group, said his organization would “hold back from future events” at the resort, “given the platform that Chelsea Piers provides to one of the most anti-LGBTQ and dangerous politicians today”.
The Ali Forney Center, a group that works with homeless LGBTQ youth in New York City, said Friday it will no longer be hosting a program there next month.
“People say this issue is about free speech, but it’s not. This is in response to DeSantis’ silence on free speech in schools,” the group’s president wrote, Alex Roque, in a press release.
Mr Roque said the event was ‘a triple insult’ as it was taking place during Pride month; in a gay neighborhood in a recreational complex used by many homosexuals and their families; and in a complex built on a site that holds unique significance in New York’s gay history.
Chelsea Piers was built in the mid-1990s, but the site’s original piers had been built for the mooring of ocean liners and other large vessels in the early 1900s.
By the 1960s, the piers had fallen into disrepair, but they were soon reborn as a ramshackle refuge for homeless LGBTQ youth and a well-known waterfront hangout for gay men and others.
The region has become synonymous with a kind of underground gay freedom in the years since the Stonewall Uprisingin 1969, which performed at the nearby Stonewall Inn and is widely considered the birth of the modern gay rights movement.
The area has also attracted artists and photographers, who have depicted the waterfront scene in works that have been featured in recent and well-received exhibitions at venues like the Bronx Museum of the Arts and the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in Manhattan.
“It couldn’t happen in a worse place,” Mr Roque said. “And that sends really mixed messages about what interests Chelsea Piers. Their Instagram is full of pride month posts right now, but doing this is the total opposite of that.
