Ed Koch was always quick with a quip or a comeback or a comment — except if the subject was his sexual orientation.
“It’s none of your f—ing business,” the lifelong bachelor fired back when asked if he was gay or straight during filming of “Koch,” a documentary recently produced about his life.
The answer to the oft-debated topic of Koch’s sexuality will accompany the former mayor to his grave — though the loquacious politician managed to deliver a post-mortem shot at an old rival on the issue.
During a nasty 1977 Democratic mayoral primary campaign between Koch and Mario Cuomo, political signs appeared in Queens that read: “Vote for Cuomo, Not the Homo.”
Following Koch’s death in Manhattan early Friday, the New York Times released a 2007 interview during which Koch said he never truly forgave Cuomo, or his son Andrew, now New York’s governor, for the dirty political trick.
“I always held it against him,” Koch said in the videotaped sitdown. “I also held it against his son, Andy Cuomo.
“Social relationships, where we meet, are good,” Koch added, discussing post-primary encounters with the elder Cuomo. “Underneath, he knows, I know, what I’m really thinking: ‘You pr—.'”
A representative for Gov. Cuomo declined comment on Koch’s statement, and Mario Cuomo could not be reached. Gov. Cuomo, speaking Friday on an Albany radio show, said his father and Koch “were like the Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier of our time.”
“He made government fun and cool again,” Cuomo said, praising Koch’s political legacy. “His personality was as big as New York.”
Koch was a Congressman from Greenwich Village when the Stonewall riots of 1969 spawned the gay-rights movement, and changed history.
As Koch’s ascendant political star saw him serve three terms in City Hall during the era of the AIDS crisis and the struggle for gay rights, questions about the mayor’s sexuality never seemed to go away.
When he first ran for City Hall in 1977, opposing Cuomo for the Democratic nomination, Koch frequently campaigned with former Miss America Bess Myerson at his side — a move widely viewed as a counterattack against the persistent whispers of the candidate’s homosexuality.
“No, I am not a homosexual,” Koch said at the time. “If I were a homosexual, I would hope I would have the courage to say so. What’s cruel is that you are forcing me to say I am not a homosexual.
“This means you are putting homosexuals down. I don’t want to do that.”
The beauty queen and the balding mayoral candidate were often seen holding hands at various campaign events. Political guru David Garth later credited Myerson with putting Koch’s campaign over the top.
“Koch wouldn’t have won without Bess,” Garth told New York Magazine a decade later.
Koch served as mayor from 1978 through 1989, a tenure that overlapped with the darkest days of the AIDS crisis.
Koch resolutely refused to shed light on his sexual preference, even as it was explored in films and a Tony-winning Broadway play.
“My answer to questions on this subject is simply, ‘F— off,'” he once memorably declared. “There have to be some private matters left.”
In the 2009 documentary “Outrage,” filmmaker Kirby Dick claimed to have outed Koch by alleging that ex-mayor once had a lover named Richard Nathan, who moved out of New York when Koch was elected mayor.
Koch denied he and Nathan, who later died of AIDS, were ever lovers.
During several decades in the public spotlight, Koch was never romantically linked with anyone — male or female — beyond Myerson.
Gay activists had long bashed Koch for his silence on his sexuality, with some even charging that his reticence contributed to the AIDS plague.
“We must never forget that this man was an active participant in helping us to die, in murdering us,” playwright Larry Kramer wrote in 2012.
Kramer was irate at Koch, in his function as a movie critic, for offering positive reaction to a documentary about AIDS called, “How to Survive a Plague.”
But Koch unabashedly defended his record on gay rights and his support of the gay community.
In 1984, he became the first mayor to march in the city’s Gay Pride Parade. He also boasted of appointing gay judges and introducing a bill in Congress with former New York Rep. Bella Abzug to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation.
One of his first acts as mayor was to ban such discrimination by city agencies.
Koch often turned the tables on reporters who inquired about his sexual preference.
“When was the last time you committed oral sex on your spouse?” he once told a scribe, responding to a question with a question. “Don’t answer that. It’s no one’s business.”
whutchinson@nydailynews.com
