New York City Council Chairman Corey Johnson. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
Corey Johnson, a gay man living with HIV, on Thursday, December 24, dropped his offer to succeed New York Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2021, citing the rigors of his job and the throes of coronavirus to improve their mental health.
Johnson, the proud New York City Council speaker, burst into the race as a strong contender in 2019. But a year later, and the New York City he so openly revered is gone.
The avenues remain motionless. Closed blinds. Vacant subways. Pressure is mounting not only on de Blasio, but on his successor, further heightened by the wave of protests from Black Lives Matter, whose role Johnson as head of town has seen him thrown into the limelight. center.
Such expectations have thwarted the 38-year-old, he explained in a statement on Twitter, who reported suffering from depression since May. Lead a campaign Politics hectic, he said, while monitoring his sanity would be too difficult a task.
“I made the difficult decision not to run”. Johnson said in the statement.
“This difficult time has made me rethink how best to serve this city, and I have come to the conclusion that this is not the right path for me.
MAILBOX: @CoreyinNYC decides not to run for mayor in 2021 pic.twitter.com/3BdmOMWBkr
– katie honan (@katie_honan) September 24, 2020
Corey Johnson, the man who could have been New York’s first gay mayor.
“This difficult time has made me rethink how best to serve this city, and I have come to the conclusion that this is not the right path for me.
“In the same spirit of openness, I would also add that I have faced some personal challenges in recent months, namely depression.
“I share this because I know from experience the value of speaking honestly about one’s struggles. I have been open about my sobriety, which along with my partner and my mother, has been critical to me during this difficult time, and my HIV status.
“I think it’s also important to be open about this.
“Too often mental health issues are shrouded in secrecy and stigma, which makes people with these issues feel lonely. I encourage anyone who suffers from a mental health problem to seek help. I did it and I’m better at it.
Johnson was first elected to city council as the 3rd District representative in 2013 and left many Democrats stunned when, with great frankness, he kicked off his mayoral campaign in 2019.
He had often been placed by his followers as an almost anti-de Blasio, with his whimsical love of New York, his back-flips and dance routines on LGBT + Pride parades, and the warmth of his passion for issues such as homelessness and criminal justice. .
But the last few months have agitated him. When George Floyd’s death prompted thousands of people to jam the city streets, Johnson pledged to respond to protesters’ demands for a billion dollar cut to the police budget.
Still, city officials remained divided over the cut in a fight that had a big impact on Johnson. Loneliness has long eroded him, he said, since May, when shelter orders meant he was separated from his partner for three months.
“The last time I felt this was when I was a 16-year-old kid in the closet in a small town in Massachusetts,” he said. Magazine de New York. “I just felt like I wasn’t myself.
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