The Democratic candidates for the 15th Congressional District race will be showing up to a forum tomorrow night to explain their positions.

The Bronx’s LGBT Center Destination Tomorrow extended invitations to all the candidates, with Samelys Lopez, Melissa Mark-Viverito, Frangell Basora, Assemblyman Michael Blake, David Philip Franks Jr., Councilman Ritchie Torres, Jonathan Ortiz, and Chivona Newsome, despite not yet filing paperwork to run for the seat, are confirmed.

“We hope to focus on…poverty, homelessness, survival sex work, immigration, and police interaction in LGBT communities,” said Redemption L’Ouverture, the forum organizer, who began organizing the discussion back in September.

The group, according to L’Ouverture, doesn’t just expect to know their policy positions on an issue but solutions too.

Marlene Cintron, Assemblyman Michael Blake, and Councilman Ruben Diaz Sr., are not expected to appear. Cintron did not return messages seeking comment. Blake’s director of constituency vote told the Norwood News the campaign was unaware of the forum.

Reached by phone, Diaz Sr., a social conservative Democrat whose history of making anti-gay remarks has put him at odds with the gay community and its supporters, said he wasn’t told a forum would be held, but still wouldn’t be able to make it. “I got church tomorrow night,” Diaz Sr. told the Norwood News.

Framed as a forum rather than a debate, given Destination Tomorrow’s charity status, the forum is one of a handful of discussions focused on the race, which touched off in March last year after current seat holder, Jose Serrano, announced his retirement as he’s battling Parkinson’s Disease.

L’Ouverture hopes the attendance of candidates demonstrates their respect for the LGBT community as “equal citizens of the Bronx, and US, and the world.”

Editor’s Note: The forum will happen at 448 E. 149th St., 3rd floor. 

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.