NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams tapped ex-City Councilman Fernando Cabrera late Monday to serve as a faith adviser in his administration after the controversial Bronx politician apologized for his history of anti-gay views and remarks.
Cabrera, a Christian pastor who was initially under consideration to become the city’s top mental health official, will act as a senior adviser in the newly formed Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships, Adams said in a statement.
“I hope New Yorkers will give Fernando the opportunity to show his commitment to bringing together all New Yorkers, regardless of who they love or how they identify,” Adams said.
About an hour before Adams’ announcement, Cabrera wrote a lengthy post on Facebook in which he apologized for his various anti-gay comments over the years, including praising Uganda’s notoriously homophobic government’s ban on same-sex marriage while on a trip to the country in 2014.
He claimed he made the 2014 comments while being “unaware of the Ugandan government’s egregious treatment of the country’s LGBTQ+ population.”
“I understand how these words caused some to believe that I condone and support the Ugandan government’s historic denial of their LGBTQ+ population’s civil and human rights, but nothing could be further from the truth,” Cabrera wrote. “Unquestionably, being LGBTQ+ should never be criminalized in any way, anywhere in the world. Uganda has a shocking history of condoning and exercising such practices which I denounce and wholly reject.”
He added, “I am deeply sorry for the hurt my previous words have caused, and I look forward to serving all New Yorkers to the very best of my abilities.”
After declining for weeks to address Cabrera’s anti-LGBTQ views, Adams gave the ex-councilman credit for his apology.
“Fernando Cabrera has acknowledged the pain that his past comments have caused and has apologized for the words he used. I heard and accepted his apology,” Adams said in his statement. “As a man of faith, I have made clear that our administration will serve all New Yorkers equally and fairly.”
The appointment caps weeks of speculation over whether Cabrera would serve in Adams’ administration given his anti-gay views.
Adams initially wanted to pick Cabrera to lead City Hall’s Office of Mental Community Health but backed off that plan after it drew intense backlash from LGBTQ leaders and lawmakers.
As first reported by the Daily News, Adams then moved to quietly find a “faith-based” position for Cabrera.
Cabrera isn’t the only Adams hire that has stirred outrage among the LGBTQ community.
Last week, Adams also appointed Erick Salgado, a Brooklyn pastor with a history of anti-gay and anti-abortion views, as an assistant commissioner for immigrant affairs.
While Adams accepted Cabrera’s mea culpa, some LGBTQ critics of the mayor were not prepared to do the same late Monday.
“Apologized for the pain??? — but not for his actions! The words he used?? — That is NOT the issue,” tweeted Christine Quinn, the Council’s first openly gay speaker who at one point served alongside Cabrera. “The fact he is a homophobe & a danger — that is the issue & this apology does NOT address that!”
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