Mayor culpa as Adams offers $7 million for LGBTQ causes
Mayor Adams took a step toward easing tensions with the LGBTQ community Friday by unveiling nearly $7 million for programs aimed at supporting their cause — a move that even some of his sharpest critics in the community applauded.
“This is something I believe in and will continue to fight for,” Adams said at the Destination Tomorrow LGBT Center in the South Bronx. “When you sat down as a community and spoke with us, we heard, we listened, we implemented and took action.”
The mayor’s announcement comes amid serious headwinds for his administration over LGBTQ issues.
When NYC Pride Month began two weeks ago, five of the city’s largest LGBTQ groups announced they’d boycott a reception he was hosting to honor the community — a protest prompted by Adams’ hiring of three Christian pastors who’d made anti-gay comments prior to joining his administration.
Friday’s news also came a day after Mayor Adams and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams criticized Queens Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, a Republican, for likening a program that involves drag queens reading stories to public school students to “degeneracy” and grooming.
Asked to elaborate on his criticism, Adams said the city should lean into “drowning out comments like that” and that his administration would “continue to promote the understanding of different cultures.”
“Many parents were concerned about sex ed in schools. Many parents were concerned about teaching African-American history in schools,” he said. “So you have to sit down and learn why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
The $6.7 million in city funds that Adams announced Friday will pay for several new initiatives, including one aimed at promoting acceptance among family members, another to promote financial literacy for LGBTQ people left homeless after being rejected at home and a third targeting houses of worship with little tolerance for LGBTQ people.
“We won’t always get it right,” Adams conceded. “But we will always do right by sitting down and learning. This is a new place for us all, and those who hold onto stagnant beliefs will never be able to face the future that’s in front of us.”
One move gay rights leaders believe Adams got wrong so far is his hiring of Fernando Cabrera, Erick Salgado and Gilford Monrose, who was tapped to head Adams’ Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships. All three are Christian pastors who have made anti-gay comments in the past. Both Cabrera and Salgado have apologized.
One of the city’s new initiatives sets its sights on religion in particular. According to a press statement from Adams’ office, that program is aimed at addressing “religious hate and discrimination” through a “faith-based healing initiative” launched by the Health Department and the city’s LGBTQ-focused unity project.
When asked how it will work, given the controversy over his hiring of pastors who have espoused anti-gay points of view, Adams said it’s “about sitting down at the table” and acknowledging that in many instances active members of faith groups are also LGBTQ.
“We have to start communicating, and some of those conversations are difficult,” he
said. “More and more people are realizing they are wrong.”
Adams, who touted his support of the state’s marriage equality law when he was a state senator, as well as his support of LGBTQ officers when he was an NYPD cop, used the example of his brother-in-law, who banned Adams from his church after marriage equality passed, only to admit that he was wrong years later.
Allen Roskoff, an LGBTQ rights leader who has criticized Adams in recent months, praised the mayor for the new funding Friday.
“It’s a wonderful gift for the community,” he said. “It will save lives.”
But Roskoff questioned how effective meetings with religious leaders would be, suggesting that LGBTQ people might instead want to join a house of worship that welcomes them.
“Maybe you want to go to a place that accepts you?” he said. “We are beyond acceptance. We are demanding parity.”
During Adams’ announcement, Sean Coleman, the founder of Destination Tomorrow, stressed the importance of the city focusing its attention on parts of the LGBTQ community that have been ignored in the past, particularly Black and brown people, a sentiment the mayor appeared to share.
“I know how serious this problem is with young people who identify, and they are removed from their families. Family rejection is one of the main causes of homelessness amongst the youth in this community,” Adams said.
“Roughly 50 percent of homeless youth are LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, and 90% of the group are black and brown. These young people are twice disadvantaged, and we want to give them the support they need.”