Protecting and Affirming the LGBTQ+ Community in New York State

In June of this year, on the eve of the annual NYC Pride March, Governor Kathy Hochul signed new, nation-leading legislation designed to affirm and protect the LGBTQ+ community in New York State. Among other initiatives, the legislation prohibits a number of state agencies from removing children whose parents or guardians allow them to receive gender-affirming care.

This event will bring together policymakers, advocates, and community members to discuss the implications of the new law as well as future legislation under consideration by the state to protect and affirm the LGBTQ+ community.

Panelists:

Chanel Jessica Lopez (she/her) is the first transwoman gubernatorial appointee in New York, serving as Governor Hochul’s Deputy Director of LGBTQ Affairs. She served previously as Transgender Community Liaison for the NYC Commission on Human Rights. She is a Dominican Afro-Latina born and raised in Spanish Harlem and has been an advocate and activist for the transgender and gender nonconforming communities for the past 15+ years. Ms. Lopez was also featured in the Netflix documentary The Death & Life of Marsha P. Johnson. She has received numerous awards including: two “Certificate of Merits” from the former Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., the “New York State Health Department Humberto Cruz Award,” the “Dominican Association Trail Blazer Award,” the Department of Civil Services “Marsha P. Johnson Award,” and the “2022 Heritage Image Award.” She was also included on the City & State Power of Diversity: Pride 100 list.

Dr. Joshua Safer (he/him) is the Executive Director of the Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery in New York City and Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Safer is a co-author of the Endocrine Society guidelines for the medical care of transgender patients; the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) standards of care (SOC, version 8); the gender affirming hormone treatment sections for UpToDate; the most current transgender medical care review in the New England Journal of Medicine; and the most current review of transgender medical care in Annals of Internal Medicine. Dr. Safer was the inaugural president of the United States Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH). He is currently a WPATH board member. He also serves on the Global Education Institute (GEI) for WPATH and has been a scientific co-chair for multiple WPATH international meetings.

Assemblymember Tony Simone (he/him) represents the 75^th Assembly District covering Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown, and part of the Lincoln Center area in Manhattan. Assemblymember Simone got his start in government working for the late State Senator Catherine Abate, Councilmember Christine Quinn, and NYS Comptroller H. Carl McCall. He went on to become Deputy Director of the Northeast Regional Office of People for the American Way where he led policy and field operations and organized for immigrant and LGBTQ rights. Simone returned to government as the Director of Community Outreach for the NYC Council and Council Speaker Quinn before running for the state assembly in 2022. He lives in Hell’s Kitchen with his husband, Jason, and their rescue dog, Radar.

Erin Mayo-Adam (she/her), moderator, is the Director of the LGBTQ Policy Center at Roosevelt House, an assistant professor in the Political Science Department, and a member of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Faculty and Curriculum Committee. She is the author of Queer Alliances: How Power Shapes Political Movement Formation and has published in numerous academic outlets including the Law & Society Review, Law & Social Inquiry, and the Oxford Encyclopedia of LGBT Politics and Policy. Her research is situated in the fields of American politics, law and society, and political theory and bridges scholarship on social movements, interest groups and public policy, intersectionality, gender and sexuality, and migration and labor politics.

Special Guest:

State Senator Brad Hoylman (He/Him), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, represents New York’s 27^thState Senate District, which covers the heart of Manhattan, including Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen and the Upper West Side. He has passed dozens of bills protecting LGBTQ+ rights including banning “gay conversion therapy;” GENDA, which extends human rights protections to transgender New Yorkers; the repeal of the “Walking While Trans” ban; and legalizing gestational surrogacy to assist LGBTQ families and those struggling with fertility. A former Rhodes Scholar, he has made several appearances at Roosevelt House public programs.

This event is co-sponsored by the CUNY LGBTQ Advisory Council and it is made possible by the generous support of the New York City Council and the CUNY LGBTQ Consortium.

This event has been postponed.