LGBTQ+ Rights

At a time when LGBTQ+ people — especially trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people — are being targeted nationwide, New York has a responsibility to be more than a safe harbor in name only. We must deliver real protection, codify those protections into law, and make sure queer and trans New Yorkers can live freely, safely, and with dignity.

LGBTQ+ rights are not a single-issue fight. They are a housing issue, a healthcare issue, a public safety issue, an education issue, and a democracy issue. If we want queer New Yorkers to thrive, then government must protect their freedom, fund the services they need, and preserve the communities they built.

Protect Gender-Affirming Care and Bodily Autonomy
Whether you pursue gender-affirming care or not shouldn't be up for political debate. Every New Yorker should be able to access gender-affirming care regardless of their income or insurance status. 

I would support the passage of S9275A / A6596C—Gender-Affirming Care: Non-Discrimination and Insurance Coverage, which would:

• Require New York Medicaid to cover medically necessary gender-affirming care, even if federal funding is withdrawn

• Expand Essential Plan coverage to include gender-affirming care

• Prohibit discrimination by health care providers and insurers

• Require insurance coverage for treatment related to gender dysphoria or gender incongruence

Make Schools Safe for LGBTQ+ Students
Every young person deserves to live and learn as themselves. That means policies like:

• LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum

• K-12 age-appropriate consent and healthy relationships education, which has been shown to reduce sexual violence and gender-based bullying by up to 35%

Address the LGBTQ+ Housing Instability Crisis
LGBTQ+ youth are disproportionately likely to experience homelessness, and too many queer elders are being priced out of the neighborhoods they helped to build.

• Increase state funding for emergency shelter, transitional housing, respite beds, and permanent housing navigation.

• Protect LGBTQ+ youth from being mistreated, misgendered, denied placement, or forced into unsafe housing.

• Support and strengthen protections like S1481A / A3619, which expanded training requirements for runaway and homeless youth programs serving LGBTQ+ young people.

• Fund a statewide right to counsel in housing court so people who cannot afford lawyers have representation and are not left to face eviction alone.

Support HIV Prevention, Treatment, and Intervention
New York should be leading the country on HIV prevention, testing, treatment, and research.

• Expand access to PrEP and PEP with consistent funding for, and advertising of, programs for low-cost and free access

• Expand funding for free HIV testing, sexual health clinics, emergency access to care, and public health strategies for normalizing sexual health care. 

Preserve Queer Culture
Queer liberation is not just about survival; it’s about being able to gather, create, and belong. Preserving queer culture is synonymous with preserving the culture of New York.

• Preserve queer bars, small businesses, community organizations, and cultural spaces with funding and grants

• Use State funding to incentivize community-led planning that protects the history of this district’s unique role in the LBGTQ+ fight for recognition and civil rights

Protect LGBTQ+ Families
Families come in many forms, and the law should protect them all. I support strengthening New York’s parentage, adoption, and legal family recognition laws so LGBTQ+ parents and children are not left vulnerable because of outdated legal definitions, biology-based assumptions, or burdensome court processes.

New York has made important progress through the Child-Parent Security Act, but the law still does not fully reflect every way LGBTQ+ families are formed. Some non-biological parents, multi-parent families, nonbinary parents, and functional parents who have raised and cared for a child still face unnecessary legal barriers to securing recognition.

I support legislation like RAISE Children—S9748 / A4880, which would:

• Create a more streamlined confirmatory adoption process for parents who are already legally recognized

• Make adoption less expensive, intrusive, and time-consuming for LGBTQ+ families

• Allow courts to recognize multi-parent families when it is in the best interest of the child

• Establish clearer presumptions of parentage

• Modernize outdated legal language around parenthood and family structure

No parent should have to jump through unnecessary hoops to prove their relationship to their own child. New York law should recognize and protect LGBTQ+ families with the dignity, clarity, and security they deserve.