Deborah J. Glick

Deborah J. Glick (born December 24, 1950) is an American politician from New York and a Democratic member of the New York State Assembly representing the 66th Assembly District in lower Manhattan. Glick is a lifelong resident of New York City. She received her BA from Queens College and her M.B.A. from Fordham University. She has followed an unconventional career path: seven years as a production supervisor for Steinway Pianos through a two-year stint as Deputy Director for the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Her political activity began in college and her involvement in grass roots organizing continues today. She has focused on areas relating to civil rights, reproductive freedom, lesbian and gay rights (LGBT rights), environmental improvement and preservation, and the arts.
Glick first ran for the legislature in 1990, being sworn into office the following January when she became the state of New York's first openly gay state legislator. She has been re-elected every two years ever since. She ran uncontested in the 2008 general election and won the 2010 general election with 87 percent of the vote.
In the Assembly, Glick has a generally left wing or progressive voting record. She has proposed bills that would prevent evictions based on a tenant's ownership of a pet, protect seniors from unwarranted evictions and provide domestic partnership for life partners. She is Chair of the Assembly committee on higher education, as well as a member of the influential Ways and Means and Rules committees.
The first openly LGBT member of the New York Legislature, Glick is today one of six, alongside Assemblymembers Micah Kellner, Daniel O'Donnell, Matthew Titone and Harry Bronson, as well as Senator Brad Hoylman.

Since 1991 Glick has focused mainly on two policy initiatives. In 2007, Glick blocked the building of a recycling plant on the West side of Manhattan. In 2008, Glick co-sponsored A 8590, a bill allowing same sex marriage. The bill amends the domestic relations law to prohibit legal discrimination based on the gender of the couple and prohibits denying a marriage license on the grounds of the sex of the parties.

In 2014, Glick's commitment to civil rights was called into question when she was confronted by a group of disabled activists seeking her support in amending legislation that would allow people with disabilities to control their own healthcare and allow them to live in the community, rather than in an institutional setting. Amending the current legislation would allow disabled New Yorkers to live in their own homes instead of nursing facilities through a program known as the Community First Choice Option. Rather than working with the disability community to support the civil rights of people with disabilities, Glick continuously fought against the disability community and deliberately blocked the Community First Choice Option which earned her the title of "the head of the opposition to the Community First Choice program."