Up Myrtle Avenue In A Dress

The letter writer apparently doesn’t get into the city much:

Charles Ober — an openly gay candidate running for the City Council seat formerly held by Dennis Gallagher — said Wednesday he has been smeared by a nasty anti-gay screed.

But Ober, a Democrat, was not alone in denouncing the hateful anonymous missive.

He was joined at a news conference by a potential rival from the opposite side of the political spectrum: Republican hopeful Thomas Ognibene.

The letter — a typed page full of vile hate speech, with frequent spelling and grammatical errors — was sent to an unknown number of households in Ridgewood, Middle Village and Glendale, they said.

“You need to know that one of the candidates that is trying to get Dennis’ seat is a f—-t,” the letter began.

“If you do not want your kids to be exposed to this garbage, you need to make sure you vote — and not for Charlie . . . Ober,” the diatribe continues. “Our kids will be exposed to f—-ts holding hands, kissing and running up Myrtle Ave. in a dress.”

Fortunately, there is still a healthy level of cynicism in Middle Queens:

Multiple Democratic insiders inferred that Ober and Ognibene — who have been spurned by their respective political parties in the nonpartisan special election — may have concocted the hate mail scheme to boost their candidacies.

“It looks like they manufactured an issue and tried to get press on it,” said Michael Reich, executive secretary of the Queens Democratic Party.

Others blamed Ober for going along with the conservative Ognibene in a plan to divide the Democratic vote.