Incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pick for FDNY commissioner — the first out person to lead the department — has more than three decades of experience at the agency, but some prominent conservative voices on social media baselessly ripped the move as one that would jeopardize safety.
A post on X on Dec. 26 featured a video introducing Lillian Bonsignore, the incoming commissioner, and a very short part of the video described her as a “trailblazer for the LGBTQ community who will serve as the FDNY’s first openly gay commissioner.” That part of the post appeared to prompt criticism from X owner Elon Musk.
“People will die because of this,” Musk wrote, referring to Bonsignore’s appointment. “Proven experience matters when lives are at stake.”
Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas responded to the same post, saying, “A great idea! unless there’s a fire….”
Meanwhile, Nan Hayworth, a former GOP congressmember who once represented New York’s 19th District, sought to draw parallels between Bonsignore’s appointment and Kristin Crowley, the out lesbian former fire chief in Los Angeles.
“Worked out great for LA in January so why not,” Hayworth wrote, referring to the wildfires that swept through Los Angeles in the beginning of the year.
Other lesser-known political figures piled on. Sean Nienow, a former GOP state lawmaker in Minnesota, wrote on X, “The new FDNY chief doesn’t know anything about firefighting but is an expert in pronouns and pointing out perceived homophobia. What could possibly go wrong there?”
Despite the dismissive posts, Bonsignore’s appointment is backed up by her decades of experience within the department — including in key leadership posts. Bonsignore joined the FDNY in 1991 as an EMT and later helped the city in the recovery from 9/11 before becoming a paramedic in 2007. She was elevated to lieutenant in 2005, became a paramedic in 2007, and was promoted to captain in 2010. She subsequently served as chief of EMS Academy at Fort Trotten. In 2019, she was the first woman and first out person to become chief of EMS at the FDNY.
“It’s kind of odd that the thing I get celebrated for the most — people are always like, ‘Wow, you’re a woman and you’re gay’ — are the two things I put the least work into,” Bonsignore told the New York Daily News when she was promoted in 2019.
One day after Musk’s post, Mamdani defended his new FDNY commissioner.
“Experience does matter, which is why I appointed the person who spent more than 30 years at EMS,” Mamdani wrote on X in response to Musk’s post. “You know, the workforce that addresses at least 70% of all calls coming into FDNY?”
