When Brian Ellner’s partner Simon caught the bouquet at a friend’s wedding several weeks ago, it seemed like a good omen for the couple. Except for one thing: They can’t get married.

“I can’t marry the person I love,” says Ellner, 35, who is a candidate in the Sept. 13 primary for Manhattan Borough President.

“I am tired of marching for what I view as basic civil rights. There is no such thing as almost equal,” he adds empathetically.

Gay marriage is just one issue that’s at the heart of the Democratic candidate’s platform. While Manhattan borough president-a position currently filled by Virginia Fields, who is running for mayor-is not a particularly high profile position, Ellner is making it a national race. Joe Trippi, former campaign guru for Howard Dean, is a consultant for Ellner.

And Ellner is carefully positioning himself to be New York’s answer to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

“I think it needs to be (national). …Manhattan needs to be on the cutting edge, pushing progressive politics and ideas, and I ask if not here, then where?” Ellner says over lunch recently.

New York Native

Ellner is a native son of New York, born and raised in Stuyvesant Town. After attending public school in the city, he went to Dartmouth and then Harvard Law School. Until six weeks ago he was an attorney with O’Melveny and Myers in Manhattan, where he worked on a number of landmark civil rights cases, including Lawrence V. Texas, which overturned existing anti-gay sodomy laws throughout the U.S.

Although he’s a political rookie-his only elected office has been president of District 2 School Board-he’s prepared to infuse Manhattan politics with a blast of good, old-fashioned Democratic thought and civil rights activism. Hence his nickname, “the Gay JFK.”

New point of view

He believes his new-kid-on-the-block status has allowed him to bring fresh ideas to the table. “I am not a career politician, so I can raise a lot of questions and take the risk, “he says.

And those questions are deeply infused with his love for his home city and pertain to many questions of life issues: Housing, pollution, education and health care. “I don’t want to see Manhattan become an outdoor mall for multi-millionaires,” he says.

And of course, he focuses on LGBT issues, such as championing gay marriage, expanding funding for HIV/AIDs research and fighting the crystal meth epidemic.

“I would double the amount of money being spent of crystal meth programs,” he says, “I am tired of talking to kids who sero-converted. This not the late 80’s, early 90’s-we know how to prevent the spread of AIDs. We’re moving backwards and the city has not been aggressive enough.

Ellner on the Issues

On public safety:“We can never lose sight that we’re a target (for terrorism) and vulnerable.”

On housing:“We need to create more affordable housing by offering incentives for developers and inclusionary zoning.”

On neighborhoods:“We have to support small (independent) businesses with tax incentives and pool their risk, because that’s what makes neighborhoods neighborhoods…it’s not about Red Lobster and Olive Garden.”

On health and environment: "If we want our children to be healthy in the city, we have to move off fossil fuels that are polluting our air…And I want to spark the debate nationally about our dependence on fossil fuels.”

On education:
“The most successful ingredient is quality teachers and parental involvement. Teachers need a fair contract and living wage so they can live in the city in which they teach…We need more small schools to deal with the population.”

Yankees or Mets?
“Mets.”