Following through on a key campaign pledge, Mayor Zohran Mamdani will visit the Brooklyn Community Pride Center on March 13 to sign an executive order establishing the new Mayor’s Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs and announce its first director.
According to the mayor’s office, the new office will take the lead on coordinating initiatives and resources for LGBTQ New Yorkers across city agencies; prevent agencies from engaging in discrimination on the basis of gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation; and develop legal resources to uphold the city’s sanctuary city protections for LGBTQIA+ individuals.
The office will also oversee and “expand upon” the NYC Unity Project, which was established under the de Blasio administration and championed by former First Lady Chirlane McCray as the first citywide commitment to meet the needs of LGBTQ young people through education, workforce development programs, and health equity, among other areas.
The first director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs will be Taylor Brown, an attorney who boasts an impressive legal background in support of LGBTQ individuals at the national level. Brown formerly worked for Lambda Legal and the ACLU and now works in New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ office as an assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Bureau.
“New York City is proud of its LGBTQIA+ community and will refuse to deny healthcare, safety or dignity to anyone on the basis of their identity,” Mamdani said in a written statement on March 13. “With Taylor Brown as Director of the new Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs, the city’s queer community will not only be celebrated, but protected at every turn.”
Brown, a biracial Black trans woman who hails from North Carolina, has worked on federal cases pertaining to gender-affirming care, the rights of incarcerated trans individuals, and gender markers on birth certificates, among other areas of focus. In 2024, Brown played a key role in James’ legal battle against anti-trans Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman after he signed an executive order barring trans athletes from participating in sports at county facilities.
“New York has given me everything — life-saving health care, education, a home, a career, my chosen family, and a life of purpose,” Brown said in a written statement. “I am so proud to serve this city as the inaugural Director of the Mayor’s Office for LGBTQIA+ Affairs. I will work every day to ensure that the doors of New York City remain open to all and to continue New York City’s legacy as a beacon of opportunity and hope for those who have been ignored, discriminated against, and intentionally excluded,” said Director Taylor Brown.”
According to the mayor’s office, Brown is the first trans person to lead a city office or agency.
Attorney General Letitia James welcomed Brown’s new role, saying she is “proud” to see her “step into this important role serving New York City’s LGBTQ+ community.”
“In her time at the Office of the Attorney General, Taylor has been a tireless champion for fairness, dignity, and equal justice under the law,” James said. “New Yorkers will be well served by her leadership, and I look forward to her continued service ensuring every LGBTQ+ New Yorker is protected and celebrated.”
Mamdani, who took office on Jan. 1, made the establishment of the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs a key piece of his campaign platform during the time leading up to the 2025 mayoral election. He also mentioned it during campaign events, such as a June 1 forum last year at Red Eye NY, and in an interview with Gay City News less than one week before election day. During that interview, Mamdani said he “put forward a plan that would establish the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs that would deliver funding and support for housing, legal services, and mental health, as well as putting forward $65 million in funding for gender-affirming care that would replace the amount of funding that the federal government is threatening to strip of this city in an attempt to attack trans and queer New Yorkers.”
The new office comes at a time when access to gender-affirming care has been restricted for youth and some adults at multiple private hospitals in New York City amid pressure from the Trump administration, which first targeted trans care through an executive order in early 2025 and subsequently issued proposed rules intended to comprehensively ban gender-affirming care for youth. Most recently, NYU Langone announced it shut down its Transgender Youth Health Program, while some youth patients at Mount Sinai have also said their care has been restricted.
