New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted a Pride event this week, where he announced a commitment to invest $15 million for transgender treatments.
“City Hall will also not back down in the face of federal attacks against trans New Yorkers. The threats will continue and so will our relentless protection of trans people across this city,” Mamdani said. “As a first step, my administration has made a $15 million investment in gender affirming care over the next two years, and we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to ensure that trans and gender non-conforming New Yorkers can live with dignity, safety, and freedom they deserve.”
The announcement comes as the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene plans to open a gender-affirming care clinic in Queens.
“Transgender, gender-nonconfirming, and nonbinary New Yorkers deserve age-appropriate health care that is affirming, respectful, and considerate of all their needs,” a city’s health department spokesperson wrote to The Advocate. “As with the other clinic services, gender-affirming hormone therapy will be offered at no to low cost and regardless of immigration status.”
Mamdani’s efforts come as his office previously declared he inherited a “historic $12 billion budget gap.”
The investment in gender care is Mamdani’s latest progressive move, as he released a “racial equity plan” in April to address what he believed are “patterns of disinvestment, exclusion from homeownership, unequal access to health care and employment and concentrated environmental burdens” experienced by “communities of color.”
According to Mamdani’s office, the Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan is the “first time any New York City administration has required major city agencies to examine their work through a racial equity lens and identify and eliminate disparities.”
