Amy Cooper is continuing to feel the backlash after she called the cops on Christian Cooper (no relation) in Central Park on Memorial Day. Although there is no such thing as a perfect victim to racist profiling, more information is coming out about Cooper that proves he’s not new to this activism thing, but true to this.
Christian’s name catapulted to the national spotlight after the Central Park incident where Christian told Amy that her dog should be on a leash in an area that was popular for birdwatching. When she refused to listen, Christian says on his Facebook that he tried to give her dog a treat and this is when Amy got defensive.
Eventually, Christian started recording Amy, who was breaking park rules by having her dog in a birdwatching area. This is when she told Christian that she’s going to call the police and “tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.” Granted, Christian was feet away from her and he was the one who told her, “Please don’t come close to me” when she started approaching him. Still, Amy called the police and told them that an African American man was threatening her and her dog.
Amy received a swift backlash when the video of the incident went viral. She was terminated from her job at Franklin Templeton, her dog was “voluntarily surrendered” to Abandoned Angels Cocker Spaniel Rescue, Inc. and now, there are even calls to have her banned from Central Park. In the latest news of repercussions, Amy is also being probed by the NYC Commission on Human Rights, according to New York Post.
Meanwhile, more information is surfacing about Cooper and he has an extensive history in LGBTQ+ activism.
According to GAY USA, Cooper was a co-chair of the board of directors of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) in the late ’80s, “at a time when GLAAD was still a grass-roots, New York-based group organizing protest rallies against anti-gay violence, actions against the New York Post for its homophobic coverage, and television appearances to correct misleading programming about LGBT lives.”
Chris also brought his activism to the comic book world. While he worked as a writer and editor for Marvel Comics, he was the assistant editor to the comic book that featured Marvel’s first out superhero. He also is the creator of Marvel’s first lesbian central character. He eventually created and authored the Internet’s lamented LGBTQ superhero epic “QUEER NATION: THE ONLINE GAY COMIC”.
Christian also put in work on the governing level when he organized the political action committee (PAC) No More REPublicans Toying with Your Life (No More REPTYLs) in response to the continued suppression of basic LGBTQ legislation in New York State by the Republican majority in the state’s senate.
According to GAY USA, “The specific goal of No More REPTYLs was to help elect Democratic state senators in competitive New York districts currently held by Republicans, by funding the Democratic challengers’ campaigns. He later refined that model into Chris’ List, an email alert that pointed list members’ resources–whether in dollars or phone-calling, doorbell-ringing people power–directly towards worthy Democratic challenger candidates. With the passage of same-sex marriage into law in New York in 2011, Chris retired the list.”
Christian did all of this along with being a Harvard graduate, a film reviewer, and an avid birdwatcher. He was featured in the documentary “Birders: The Central Park Effect”, and according to GAY USA, the reason Christian is out and about bird-watching in May is because the month “coincides with the peak of spring migration.”
Christian is also an author of prose, including the book “Songs of the Metamythos”, which is “a journey through a new mythology inclusive of all ethnicities and sexual/gender identities.”
So the man is basically a “Black gay icon” to be celebrated, even before a racist incident pushed him to the spotlight.
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