New York City turned the page to a new year and a new leader on Jan. 1 with the inauguration of Zohran Mamdani, who has vowed to prioritize the needs of the LGBTQ community as the city’s next mayor.
Mamdani, a 34-year-old former state lawmaker, emphasized support for LGBTQ rights during his campaign and ultimately won overwhelming support from the queer community, pulling in 81% of the LGBTQ vote, according to exit polls. Mamdani’s wide-ranging proposals for the LGBTQ community also translated into the emergence of groups like Gays for Zohran, which held a National Coming Out Day rally for him in the weeks leading up to the general election.
In an interview with Gay City News less than a week before the election, Mamdani said he would “not just protect LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers, but to celebrate and to cherish them.”
During his campaign, Mamdani had a six-page platform dedicated to the LGBTQ community. The which included goals to expand and protet gender-affirming care by investing $65 million in public providers to deliver gender-affirming care, with $57 million going to public hospitals, clinics, health centers, and non-profits, and $8 million going to telehealth and virtual care, aftercare, home health support, and a “city-based gender-affirming care access hub.”
The plan comes at a time when some private hospitals in New York City have restricted care in response to the Trump administration’s attacks on gender-affirming care. Mamdani pledged to hold private hospitals accountable by coordinating with the attorney general and district attorneys to conduct investigations and hold public hearings on hospitals denying care to trans youth.
Mamdani also vowed to make New York City a true LGBTQ sanctuary city, including by making sure private information is not shared with other jurisdictions, implementing recommendations on ensuring incarcerated trans New Yorkers are treated with dignity, and creating the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.
The Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs would oversee and implement LGBTQ-related initiatives across city agencies, expand LGBTQ liaisions to reelvant agencies, and feature legal resources to make sure the city’s LGBTQ sanctuary status is upheld. Mamdani proposed that the new office provide $87 million in funding, including for housing programs, mental health services, organizations serving transgender individuals, administrative and coordination costs, workforce investments, healthcare funding, education funding, and public defense and legal investments.
During his October interview with Gay City News, Mamdani also vowed to protect transgender student-athletes in the midst of widespread attacks against the right of individuals to participate in sports in accordance with their gender identity.
“I view the laws as something to follow, and I’m proud of the fact that our school system refused to give up trans kids when the Trump administration came for them recently,” Mamdani said at the time. “And we know that the Trump administration’s acts of political retribution are ones that have already started, because they withheld more than $50,000,000 in funding that was set to be delivered to our school system purely as a result of our insistence that we stand up for every single student across our system.”
Ahead of the general election, Mamdani posted a video from the Christopher Street Pier, where he acknowledged the late trans activist Sylvia Rivera and denounced the transphobia coming out of the White House. He said at the time that his administration would “deploy hundreds of lawyers to combat Trump’s hate, make New York City an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city, and create an Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs to allocate millions for youth and adult housing programs, as well as gender-affirming care.”
Since November, Mamdani built a transition team featuring LGBTQ leaders such as Dr. Carla Smith, the CEO of the LGBT Community Center; Callen Lorde’s CEO, Patrick McGovern, and chief medical officer, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis; Mohamed Q. Amin of the Caribbean Equality Project; Rabbis Jason Klein of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah and Abby Stein of Rabbis for Repro; WIN CEO and former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn; and Jeffrey LeFrancois of the Meatpacking District Management Association.
In the days leading up to the inauguration, Mamdani appointed fire commissioner Lillian Bonsignore, a longtime FDNY veteran who will serve as the agency’s first out commissioner.
LGBTQ representation was evident at City Hall on Inauguration Day. Bernie Wagenblast, an out trans woman who is among the voices of the New York City subway, was the event’s emcee, while out queer music artist Lucy Dacus, who is part of the band boygenius, performed “Bread and Roses.” At the inauguration, which also served as the swearing-in ceremony for some other citywide officials, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams urged New Yorkers to avoid scapegoating transgender individuals and other marginalized groups.
“The powers in place would rather create an ‘other’ to blame for our problems than address them, whether it be our immigrant communities or our trans siblings or our homeless neighbors or many marginalized groups,” Williams said. “Rejecting those ideas means naming the reason that the powers in place perpetuate them — because if we are divided, the status quo stands.”
