The funding —
which covers a range of areas, including legal services, education, and health
— stems from topics discussed during roundtable chats with LGBTQ people of
color in the community, Adams said.
“We are proud
to invest nearly $6.7 million to support our LGBTQ+ youth, to put real dollars
into transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary-focused non-profits,
and to take a critical step forward to creating a more equitable New York
city,” Adams said in a written statement.
The largest
funding pot announced by the mayor includes $3 million to bring a financial
counselor to eight runaway and homeless youth drop-in centers and employ 16
individuals with lived experience of homelessness in full-time jobs across
those drop-in centers.
The funding
also includes $1.5 million for educational workshops, support groups for
parents, and social marketing campaigns to “promote parental and family
acceptance” of queer youth; $1 million for legal services for income-eligible
New Yorkers facing discrimination in employment, housing, public
accommodations, or government benefits; $400,000 for an expansion of services, programming,
and clinics serving people living with HIV/AIDS; $183,500 for targeted grants
to non-profits led by transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary
individuals; and $150,000 to evaluate the LGBTQ+ Health Care Bill of Rights and
update the Health Department’s trans health guides.
The mayor has
faced criticism in recent months since hiring three
religious leaders with anti-LGBTQ records — Fernando Cabrera, Gilford
Monrose, and Erick Salgado — to serve in posts in his administration. To this
day, Cabrera still serves as lead pastor of New Life Outreach International, a
church that has a homophobic statement of faith on its website defining marriage
as the “exclusive covenantal union of one man and one woman” — even as he works
in city government.
At the press
conference, Adams asserted that some have dismissed his past support of LGBTQ
issues like marriage equality and the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act.
But he subsequently pointed to the broader backlash against LGBTQ issues
nationwide and called on folks from other states to come to New York, which he
described as “a place where we open our arms and accept and embrace all that
want to live here.”
Leaders in
attendance at the press conference said the administration responded to some of
their concerns regarding the need for funding.
“We at
Destination Tomorrow are excited about the mayor’s over $6 million
investment in the LGBTQ community,” Sean Ebony Coleman, the executive director
of Destination Tomorrow, said in a written statement. “This commitment, which
focuses on the most vulnerable, is an important first step towards equity. We
are also delighted that the mayor chose our Bronx center as the
location for his announcement as this highlights the fact that many LGBTQ folks
live, work and thrive here in the outer boroughs, and that we are in need of
support and resources too.”
New Pride
Agenda executive director Elisa Crespo, who successfully fought to encourage
the state to establish a Trans Wellness and Equity Fund in New York State, said
the mayor’s funding announcement is a “very targeted and intentional investment
in our community.”
“This is the
result of advocates expressing their concerns and government hearing the calls
and taking action,” Crespo said in a written statement. “This new funding will
support organizations who serve the LGBTQ community, particularly trans-led
organizations who have bore the brunt of inequitable funding for far too long.
We look forward to working together with the mayor’s team to continue advancing
our communities’ priorities.”
SOURCE: GAY CITY NEWS
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