Zohran Mamdani Announces Trans Director to Lead NYC’s First LGBTQIA+ Affairs Office

Amid nationwide attacks on transgender rights, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is set to establish the first-ever Mayor’s Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs, which will also be the first city agency led by a trans person.

Mamdani will sign an executive order establishing the office Friday afternoon at the Brooklyn Community Pride Center, according to a press release from the mayor’s office. Taylor Brown, who is currently the Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s Office, will serve as the office’s director. Per the announcement, the office will oversee city initiatives that concern LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, advance anti-discrimination measures, and reinforce sanctuary protections for LGBTQ+ people. The city’s extant Unity Project, which also addresses the needs of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, will be absorbed into the newly formed office.

In an emailed statement, Brown said, “New York has given me everything — life-saving health care, education, a home, a career, my chosen family, and a life of purpose.” She added that she is “so proud” to be appointed as the inaugural director of the office. “I will work every day to ensure that the doors of New York City remain open to all and to continue New York City’s legacy as a beacon of opportunity and hope for those who have been ignored, discriminated against, and intentionally excluded,” she said. Brown has a long history of LGBTQ+-focused legal advocacy. According to her Linkedin, she has previously worked at the National LGBTQ+ Task Force, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU. In addition to her accolades as an attorney, the press release describes her as a “proud bi-racial black transgender woman” who has “survived violence related to her transgender status, poverty, housing instability, employment and healthcare discrimination, to become a trailblazing civil rights litigator and advocate.”

“New York City is proud of its LGBTQIA+ community and will refuse to deny healthcare, safety or dignity to anyone on the basis of their identity. With Taylor Brown as Director of the new Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs, the city’s queer community will not only be celebrated, but protected at every turn,” Mamdani added.

The establishment of the office comes at an uncertain time for access to gender-affirming care for trans youth in New York — a city that also functions as a sanctuary destination for families elsewhere in the U.S. seeking such care. In February, NYU Langone, one of the foremost providers of gender-affirming care in the city, announced that it would cease the provision of such care to minors, citing the “current regulatory environment.” The New York attorney general’s office sent a letter to NYU Langone last week, ordering the hospital system to resume the program and implying that the cessation could be a violation of New York’s anti-discrimination laws. Reports additionally emerged in February that Mount Sinai Health System was also ceasing gender-affirming care for trans youth.