Gotham Gazette

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LGBTQ

LGBTQ

  • New York Must End the Sale of Menthol Cigarettes and Protect LGBTQ Lives

    State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal (photo: @bradhoylman)


    For decades, Big Tobacco companies like R.J. Reynolds have insidiously pushed menthol cigarettes onto our most vulnerable communities, perhaps most infamously withBlack Americans. Menthol cigarettes are mint-flavored and highly addictive because they soothe the throat and mask the

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  • After Second Legislative Passage, New York State Equal Rights Amendment To Go Before Voters in 2024

    Gov. Hochul signs abortion rights legislation (photo: Governor's Office)


    Voters in the fall of 2024 will have a chance to enshrine civil rights protections for women, LGBTQ people, and abortion access into the state constitution after lawmakers on Tuesday pass the New York State Equal Rights Amendment for the second time.

    If approved by voters, the state constitution will for the first time prohibit discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, national origin, disability, and sex, "including pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes,

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  • Black LGBTQ Leaders to the Front of the Line

    Sean Ebony Coleman, the author (second from left)


    Visibility for the LGBTQ community is at an all-time high. Though this heightened exposure can lead to progress, there are also drawbacks – particularly when it comes to accurate representation of intersectional identities. When you think of LGBTQ leaders, who comes to mind? How many of them are Black?

    It is important that, in addition to prominent white LGBTQ figures, the wider public is just as conscious of Black LGBTQ thought leaders who have the necessary lived experience to have

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  • New Housing Blueprint Gives LGBTQ New Yorkers Another Reason to Celebrate

    Pride (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    This June in New York City unfolded with a welcome, if not obviously connected, set of events: Pride Month, and the newHousing Blueprint from the administration of Mayor Eric Adams. As two transgender advocates who worked together last year on an...

  • The Governor Must Act to Protect Health Care for LGBTQ New Yorkers

    Gov. Hochul at a Pride parade (photo: Don Pollard/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)


    As we celebrate Pride Month, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) has just released asobering report revealing the startling health disparities faced by LGBTQI+ New Yorkers. We need continued action to advance equity in our health-care system.

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  • How the Adams Administration and New City Council Must Uplift LGBTQ Older New Yorkers

    sage nyc housing

    Celebrating LGBTQ-friendly senior housing (photo: SAGE)


    Today, too many older New Yorkers remain invisible. Older people in New York City are often cast aside, despite their incredible civic, economic, and political contributions to our communities and the fact that the 60-and-over population is growing five times faster than the under-18 population.

    This is especially true for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) elders, who make a strong presence in New York. ...

  • Removing Obstacles to Gender-Affirming Care Will Help New York End the HIV Epidemic

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    An affirmation of transgender rights (photo: Don Pollard/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)


    World AIDS Day is an opportunity to celebrate the progress we have made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, while recommitting ourselves to Ending the Epidemic once and for all. While we have come a long way since the 1980s, some communities have been left behind. Ending the Epidemic will require a sustained focus on populations placed at highest risk, particularly people of transgender experience.

    Recent finding shows that...

  • New York Must Act to Protect Transgender Incarcerated People

    gov off relations

    Lights honoring transgender New Yorkers (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)


    When I learned that a transgender woman was incarcerated with men on Rikers Island last week, it hit close to home for me. I know from experience what it feels like to be a transgender woman in jail surrounded by men. It's a mix of trauma, fear, and humiliation.

    There are far too many stories of transgender

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  • The Other Civil Rights Revolution of 2020 That We Must Now See Through

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    Pride (NYC Mayor's Office)


    While millions of Americans marched for Black Lives and racial justice in our streets during a year of racial reckoning that was 2020, a quieter civil rights revolution was taking shape in our courtrooms, culminating in a Supreme Court decision last June that shifted the tectonic plates of the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights. With a new President who has been a leader in this fight and transgender students becoming the latest target in the GOP’s culture war, now is the time to ensure the full promise of this decision

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  • Pride and Ending the HIV Epidemic in New York This Year

    pride epidemic

    June is Pride month (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Octavia Leona Kohner is a former sex worker and a survivor of sexual assault. As a woman of transgender experience, she’s 49 times more likely than the general population to be HIV positive. But Octavia is HIV negative. She’s an example of the tremendous progress we’ve made in our effort to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in New York State -- an epidemic that has disproportionately impacted the LGBTQ community and communities of color.

    Six years ago, New York set out to end HIV by 2020, and thanks to

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  • At Stonewall 50, Ensuring Students Know the Real Story of Our City and See Themselves in Its History

    harvey feinstein hosts

    Council Member Daniel Dromm, the author (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)


    New York City is among the most diverse places in the country. It is home to more than 3 million foreign-born residents, 200 languages, 80 religious affiliations, and countless

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  • The Week Ahead in New York Politics, November 9

    New York City Hall

    New York City Hall


    What to watch for this week in New York politics:

    Wednesday is Veterans Day, with parades, resource fairs, and events to honor and aid veterans taking place before, on, and after the day itself. Mayor Bill de Blasio will hold a breakfast reception to honor the military veterans Wednesday morning. On Thursday, the City Council will hold a hearing on veteran homelessness, which the mayor vowed to end by the end of this year as part of a national pledge.

    The

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  • Advocates Rally to Keep Solitary Confinement in Spotlight

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    A rally to reform solitary confinement rules (photo: @NYCAIC)


    Last November he United Nations committee on torture found that the United States was not in compliance with its Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment because of excessive use of solitary confinement in prisons across the country.

    The UN found that use of solitary confinement of over 15 days amounts to torture. Nearly

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  • The Week That Was in New York Politics, June 22-26

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    photo: Stanley Kubrick via Museum of the City of New York


    Gotham Gazette's Week in Review, Friday June 26

    PHOTOS OF THE WEEK:Gov. Cuomo shakes hands with Sen. Flanagan at their Thursday 'big ugly' announcement (top; via The Governor's Office on flickr); Mayor

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  • The Week Ahead in New York Politics, June 22

    New York City Hall

    New York City Hall


    What to watch for this week in New York politics:

    ALBANY, ALBANY: Last week, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, and Democratic Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie agreed on a short, retroactive extension of rent regulations through Tuesday. As negotiations continue on the rent regulations and other top of the agenda priority issues like mayoral control of city schools, legislators are due back in Albany on Tuesday. By

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