The New York City Council’s LGBTQIA+ caucus fears that the federal funding to support the city’s queer community will be cut under the incoming Trump administration. They released an agenda last month that outlines protections and budget items they want to cement into the city’s policies.
The city has been considered a safe haven for members of the LGBTQ community for decades, but that in no way means that queer New Yorkers are completely protected under the law. In more Republican-leaning Nassau County, for instance, electeds enacted a ban against transgender girls and women from participating in sports this year.
According to the New York State Health Department’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) from 2022, over one million adults (an estimated 7.9% of the state’s population) identified as LGBTQ+, many of whom were below the age of 34, without a high school education, lived in households earning less than $25,000 a year, or were adults living with a disability.
About 7.1% of the state’s LGBTQ population identified as white, 7.2% as Black, 10% as Hispanic; and others identified as another race or non-Hispanic multiracial, said the survey.
In June 2023, the City Council’s LGBTQ caucus released the first version of its policy report, entitled The Marsha & Sylvia Plan. They passed four laws from the plan: Int. 564-2022, established a commission on queer older adults; Int. 976-2023, reported on the number of queer and homeless youth in the city; Int. 831-2022, established resources for women and gender-expansive people in jail and reentry services; and Int. 887-2023, required corrections department to give a monthly report on housing discrimination and gender identity.
This November on Transgender Day of Remembrance, elected officials and advocates released the Pride in Policy report, which essentially is a wishlist of policies and budget proposals they hope to pass over the next few years. The caucus specifically aims to protect the LGBTQ community from the “incoming incursions of the Trump administration.”
“This blueprint was developed in coalition with many of the incredible advocates and organizers standing here today, over the course of countless community roundtables, rounds of outreach and over two years of collaboration with queer and trans leaders,” Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, who co-chairs the caucus, said in a statement.
“While we remain committed to leading these efforts, we cannot do it alone. Our work ahead will require our partners across all levels of government to push forward bold solutions to support our queer community,” she continued. “Our demands will require significant investment that can best be met through increased taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers, something that is under the state legislature’s authority and not the city’s. Under the incoming Trump administration, federal funding to support the LGBTQIA+ community will certainly be cut. It will be up to city and state legislatures to take on that responsibility.”
Councilmember Chi Ossé added that President-elect Trump campaigned on anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, especially against transgender students and workers. “New York City has an obligation to build Fortress New York: Defend all our residents against outside threats from potentially hostile agencies while expanding and developing community investment and infrastructure here at home to create the safe, welcoming, and thriving city we deserve,” said Ossé.
The caucus’s policy agenda plans to push initiatives in multiple sectors of the city’s policies, like building supportive programs and systems within city schools for queer students, supporting people seeking gender-affirming care, expanding outreach to the city’s unhoused LGBTQ people and youth, expanding access to free and low-cost health services for queer and HIV-affected New Yorkers, mandating anti-discrimination and competency training for service providers, allocating funds for queer migrants and asylum seekers, overhauling the city’s foster care and juvenile delinquency systems to better support LGBTQ youth, and passing the Sex Worker Protection Act.