Getting to know Bloom: a preelection chat with Michael Bloomberg provides some clues to what lesbian and gay New Yorkers can expect from their new mayor. (Behind the Headlines).

Derided as a businessman with no political experience when he entered the New York City mayoral race, Democrat-turned-Republican Michael Bloomberg staged one of the most remarkable upset victories the city has ever seen. He won by approximately 40,000 votes, thanks in large part to a last-minute endorsement from incumbent mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Though Bloomberg wasn't uniformly embraced by New York's gays and lesbians, officials with lobbying groups such as the Empire State Pride Agenda are hopeful about the mayor-elect. "In Pride Agenda's opinion, there is no roadblock to the gay and lesbian community and Michael Bloomberg having a good relationship right from the very beginning," said Joe Grabarz, the group's executive director.

For some clues to Bloomberg's views on issues important to gay people, The Advocate turns to a meeting Bloomberg held with a small group of gay journalists just as he was beginning his campaign. The following exchanges provide insight into Bloomberg's positions on key topics.

Do you think business suppliers in New York City should offer domestic-partner benefits to lesbian and gay employees?

I am in favor of the city insisting on certain standards for suppliers, [and] included in that is certainly nondiscrimination. I am a little bit troubled when you come to domestic-partner benefits. I think the city should offer them [to city workers], and we do, but I would carve out something [different] for Catholic hospitals and social services deliverers.

Where do you stand on a statewide sexual orientation nondiscrimination act?

I had a conversation with Joe Bruno [Republican state senator opposed to such bills in the past] to urge him to pass the nondiscrimination act that is the before state legislature. He was very careful. He said, "You may say we had this conversation and I am considering it and I am favorably disposed." He did not explicitly say he would get it done, but personally, I would be surprised if he did not.

Do you plan to have have openly gay or lesbian advisers in your administration, and if so, who will they be?

[Addressing gay former journalist and former Advocate columnist Jonathan Capehart, a Bloomberg campaign adviser in attendance] Are you still gay? I want him to stay away from the women. I have a vested interest in that. Seriously, though, you have to have the best and the brightest and everything that you would use to describe a desirable employee. At the same time, you have to have a workforce that mirrors the community you serve and the customers you have and the society's objective of malting the world open for everyone.

Where do you stand on AIDS education and other programs for high-risk groups?

The only practical way to stop AIDS is education. In America the disparity between the HIV infection rate in the black [population] and in the white gay community--you can only chalk it up to a lack of education. We are not getting through in the black community. In terms of a needle-exchange program, if it worked, I would do it. Do I like the idea? No more than anyone else likes the idea; drugs are very dangerous and kill people. But so does HIV.

What's your position on closing the city's sex shops?

I am not going to come out in favor of supporting pornography and prostitution or that sort of thing. I support [Giuliani's] attempt to move sex establishments away from schools--that's something that I think is healthy--and the attempt to clean up Times Square.

Do you think gay men and lesbians should be allowed to legally marry?

I don't think it is the government's business to tell me who I should be married to, on any basis, shape, or form. I don't think the government should make any discrimination based on the sex of the partners. [But] I am not saying I am explicitly for or against anything.