Margarita López

Margarita López is an openly lesbian former New York City Council Member who represented the Lower East Side and the East Village, Manhattan from 1998 to 2005. López was elected to the Council in 1997. Born in Puerto Rico, her family relocated to New York City when she was a young child. A Democrat representing District 2 in the city council, she was the only openly gay Puerto Rican American politician in that organization for some time. During her years of political service, she has particularly emphasized increasing city services, renovating neighborhood libraries, and championing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights.

In 2005, López entered the race to succeedC. Virginia Fields as Manhattan Borough President. Due to a series of articles printed in the New York Post, she came under fire for connections to the controversial Church of Scientology, whose members donated sizable amounts of money to her campaign for Manhattan Borough president. Due at least in part to the bad press generated by these stories and the Church of Scientology's views on homosexuality, she lost the Democratic primary election to win her party's endorsement for the general election in November of that year. Democratic candidate Scott Stringer won the primary and later the general election.

In 2006, Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed López to a seat on the board of the New York City Housing Authority. López, who once was a critic of Bloomberg, endorsed the mayor in his re-election campaign against Fernando Ferrer, the first Puerto Rican candidate to run for mayor of the city. She was succeeded in her previous councilmember position by Rosie Méndez.