Leonard Greene: Even with all his faults, Ed Koch deserves his privacy

Ed Koch was gay.

He was gay before he became a politician. He was gay when he was mayor of New York City. He was gay long after he retired from politics and was bragging about his bridge.

Ed Koch lied about being gay. He lied about being gay before he was ever elected to anything. He lied about being gay when he sat in City Hall. He lied about being gay after they named a bridge in his honor in 2010.

The lies are not troubling. Politicians lie. They lie most on days of the week that end with a “Y.”

It’s also not troubling that he lied about being gay. People who aren’t elected officials, or movie stars or superstar athletes lie about being gay all the time.

What is troubling is that a respected newspaper decided to waste its resources on a confirmation. For years, New Yorkers were free to speculate that Koch was gay, despite his persistent denials.

Now, thanks to the New York Times, those rumors can finally be put to rest.

Ed Koch was gay all right, because the newspaper of record says he was.

“The story is also a piece of social history, showing how, not too long ago, homophobia — even in the fervently liberal city of New York — all but prohibited ambitious political figures from being open about their sexual orientation,” explains Times Deputy Managing Editor Carolyn Ryan in a sidebar that accompanied their story about the former mayor.

“It is also especially resonant at this moment, as we watch openly gay politicians rise on the city and national stage, and gay rights once again become the center of major national debates.”

Here’s another thing readers should know about Koch — he’s dead. He’s as dead now as he was in 2013 when he died.

So, why is his sexuality important now? It isn’t. But some say it is because of efforts to remove Koch’s name from the Queensboro Bridge.

According to the Jim Owles LGBT Democratic Club, Koch doesn’t deserve the honor because of his late response to the AIDS crisis.

It’s like renaming a hospital after former President Donald Trump after he dropped the ball on COVID-19.

There are plenty of reasons to criticize Koch, even in death. If he had asked, “How’m I doin’?” on the subject of race relations, the answer would have been: “Not so good.”

It was under his 12-year watch that some of the city’s most disturbing racial conflicts took place, and some of the wounds have still not healed.

Koch was in City Hall in 1984 when a knife-wielding, black grandmother named Eleanor Bumpurs was gunned down by cops in her apartment.

He was running the city in 1986 when white youths from Howard Beach chased a black man to his death on the Belt Parkway.

And he was running for re-election in 1989 when a black teen named Yusuf Hawkins was shot to death in a racial confrontation in Bensonhurst.

Is all of that worth taking his name off the bridge? Probably. Is it worth outing a dead man? Probably not?

The theory is that lives were lost because Koch cared more about keeping his secret than responding to a crisis.

That may be true, but that’s for Koch to deal with in the afterlife.

“I think many people believe that whatever decisions he’s made in life, he’s made,” said George Arzt, a public relations consultant who served as Koch’s press secretary in City Hall. “The real feeling is that even in death, you’re not safe. People could pick on you forever.”

Arzt prefers to remember the brash Ed Koch, the feisty former mayor, the spunky senior citizen who personally welcomed drivers to his bridge.

What would that Ed Koch say about being outed by the New York Times?

“I think his reaction would have been, ‘Great,” Arzt said. “’Nine years after my death, I’m still relevant.’”