LGBTQ Groups Sound Off on New York City Budget
Controversial deal reached by mayor, City Council draws extensive critique
BY MATT TRACY
Leaders representing a
range of LGBTQ-based
advocacy groups, nonprofi
t organizations, and
political clubs are voicing strong
opinions about the budget adopted
by city leaders at the end of June,
especially regarding funding for
programs serving LGBTQ, homeless,
and young New Yorkers as
well as for the NYPD.
Reaction was mixed, however,
on whether the budget’s shortcomings
refl ected failures on the part
of both Mayor Bill de Blasio and
the City Council, or if the mayor’s
intransigence, particularly on the
issue of reducing the police budget,
was largely to blame.
That division of opinion about
the $88.1 billion budget beginning
July 1 had already played out
within the Council’s fi ve-member
LGBTQ caucus. While Speaker
Corey Johnson of Manhattan had
the support of Finance Chair Daniel
Dromm and Councilmember
Ritchie Torres of the Bronx, Councilmembers
Carlos Menchaca of
Brooklyn and Jimmy Van Bramer
of Queens both voted against the
budget package, arguing it did not
make meaningful enough cuts to
NYPD funding that would have
allowed a shifting of resources to
programs serving marginalized
communities.
In a Twitter back and forth on
June 29, Dromm wrote he was
“not sure where Menchaca was
coming from” in his critique of a
budget that the Finance chair said
made “historic” cuts to the NYPD.
Menchaca fi red back, “There’s
nothing historic about transferring
money from one agency into
another and calling it a cut.”
Two statewide LGBTQ advocacy
groups, Equality New York (EQNY)
and the New Pride Agenda (NPA),
both expressed profound disappointment
in what they viewed as
modest cuts to the police department
as compared to those impacting
crucial programs and services
for LGBTQ people in areas
ranging from HIV prevention and
Mustafa Sullivan, the executive director of FIERCE, said lawmakers didn’t listen to the community when
passing the budget.
PHOTO TWITTER/ @ABABINE
Equality New York’s Amanda Babine.
queer youth employment to the
Trans Equity Program Initiative,
launched at the Council’s behest
in 2018.
“I think the budget is terrible,”
Equality New York executive director
Amanda Babine said. “We’re
enraged by what the City Council
has decided on. We’re supporting
defunding the police, so obviously
to see them cut so little of that
police budget is really frustrating.
The budget for housing, homeless
services, and healthcare is still
billions of dollars less than the
NYPD.”
She added, “The LGBTQ community
faces homelessness at extreme
levels, especially Black and
brown LGBTQ individuals.”
The New Pride Agenda’s project
FIERCE.ORG
GRIOT CIRCLE
The Griot Circle’s José Albino.
manager, Cynthia Dames, also did
not hold back in her analysis of the
budget.
“While we are sensitive to the
pressures that the mayor and City
Council were under, we found their
approach incredibly disappointing
and without bravery,” Dames said.
EQNY and NPA specifi cally
pointed to several important services
and programs that were
slashed from the budget. Babine
and Dames cited the looming impact
of cuts to summer youth employment
programs, for example,
which have helped students build
their résumés and gain important
skills and experience, as well as
cuts to education and discretionary
funding.
“What I saw in the budget was
POLITICS
no signifi cant transformational
changes on the executive side with
both the police budget and more
cuts within the City Council’s discretionary
budget,” said Dames,
who stressed that the budget negotiation
process presented a perfect
opportunity to have redirected
funds in a progressive way by bolstering
agencies and non-profi ts
that are smaller, “perennially underserved,
underfunded, and living
month-to-month.”
Larger agencies and organizations,
Dames explained, can afford
to shoulder steeper cuts because
they start from a base of having
greater resources and a wider network
to look to in fi guring out how
to survive.
“But that’s not what happened
with New York City’s budget this
year,” she said.
Mustafa Sullivan, the executive
director of FIERCE, an organization
serving LGBTQ youth of color
in New York City, offered stinging
critiques of city lawmakers — including
LGBTQ councilmembers
— for their part in the budget process.
“I know that defi nitely the community
wasn’t listened to when
they passed this budget,” said
Sullivan, who emphasized that
his organization has long fought
on behalf of young homeless New
Yorkers and against police violence
and gentrifi cation. The importance
of those issues, he said, was not
properly refl ected in the budget.
“Ironically, very few in the Bronx
stood up to the mayor,” Sullivan explained.
“We know this has been a
long-term battle — including with
Corey Johnson and Ritchie Torres
— around challenging the police
department, defunding them,
and holding them accountable for
the violence they infl ict on young
people.”
Sullivan argued that the coronavirus
induced cuts will disproportionately
impact marginalized
communities, as evidenced by the
delay in rolling out the Unity Works
workforce initiative for homeless
➤ SOUND OFF, continued on p.33
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