Backtracking, Ian Reisner Admits He Donated Money to Ted Cruz

A report in yesterday's The New York Times has revealed that Ian Reisner, one of the two gay hoteliers who hosted a dinner for Ted Cruz, did in fact donate to the Texas senator's campaign fund, contrary to earlier denials.

Reisner, who co-owns the Out NYC hotel (no relation to Out.com), made out a check for $2,700, the maximum allowed by law, only to ask for it to be canceled once the story of their dinner was published in The New York Times.

That story inspired calls for a boycott of hotels owned by Reisner and his colleague, Mati Weiderpass. "In the interest of transparency, I gave Senator Cruz a $2,700 check to show my support for his work on behalf of Israel," Mr. Reisner said in a statement he gave after the Times challenged him to explain the discrepancy. "When I realized his donation could be misconstrued as supporting his anti-gay marriage agenda, I asked for the money back. Senator Cruz's office gave the money back, and I have no intention of giving any money to any politicians who aren't in support of L.G.B.T. issues."

Reisner, who has hired by former GLAAD spokesperson Omar Shariff, Jr., to help rebuld his reputation, has been struggling to placate residents of Fire Island Pines, where he owns 320 feet of prime real estate on the dockside, which he purchased in January for $10.1 million.

Those who did defend Reisner's position, such as adult entertainer Michael Lucas (writing on Out.com), had based some of their support on the fact that the two men had not contributed to Cruz's campaign.

Approached by the Times, Weiderpass insisted that he had not followed Reisner's lead in contributing a donation to Cruz's campaign, but a Democratic strategist, Jon Reinish, was skeptical of that claim. "The idea that fund-raising was not a part of this was not believable from the get-go," he told the Times, adding that donating to Cruz was unthinkable for a man like Reisner, with deep interests in the LGBT community.

"They sat down with a proud enemy of the gay community," he said. "Ted Cruz legislates on that, he runs on that. It's one of the foundations of his platform and it's not just opposition to gay marriage. He's against basic civil rights and he's been out there on that from the very beginning."