21 THE QUEENS COURIER • APRIL 1, 2022 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Queens electeds urge governor to establish $15 million transgender wellness fund
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Queens lawmakers rallied on the Million
Dollar Staircase at the Capitol building in Albany
on March 24 with transgender advocates
and their allies. Th e group called on Governor
Kathy Hochul and legislative leadership to
establish a $15 million Statewide Transgender
Wellness and Equity Fund in the 2023 budget.
Th e fund would enable an unprecedented
investment in New York’s transgender and
gender-expansive communities by providing
tailored services, expanding organizational
capacities and resourcing tangible initiatives
geared toward empowering the transgender and
gender-nonconforming (TGNC) community
and improving health and wellness outcomes.
“Our TGNC community is being attacked
nationwide. Th ey are oft en the fi rst to experience
discrimination resulting in homelessness,
lack of proper healthcare and workplace
harassment,” Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz
said. “Yet, by the time current funding makes
it to the groups providing services, it is woefully
insuffi cient. It’s time for New York state
to prioritize funding specifi cally for the needs
of TGNC folks and create a dedicated fund to
service their needs.”
A 2018 report by Funders for LGBTQ Issues
found that the TGNC community only receives
$0.04 of every $100 awarded to LGBTQ causes.
Meanwhile, the economic crisis precipitated by
the COVID-19 pandemic has had an especially
adverse impact on TGNC individuals who were
already struggling before the pandemic.
Cruz explained that racism, transphobia and
xenophobia are public health crises that continue
to deepen economic disparities among
those communities and perpetuate cycles of
criminalization, unemployment, mental and
physical health disparities and homelessness.
“Across systems and issues, we see the
disparities that exist for our transgender and
gender-nonconforming community,” Assemblywoman
Jessica González-Rojas said. “While
I am glad that we have appropriated money
in our budget resolutions for LGBT services
and programming it is time that we prioritize
the T in the LGBT community. Transgender
New Yorkers deserve a separate allocation of
resources that is for them and decided by them.
We urge our leadership to include a $15 million
allocation for a Transgender Equity and Wellness
Fund in the enacted state budget.”
A report by the National Center for Transgender
Equity conducted in 2015, determined that
18% of transgender respondents in New York
were unemployed and 37% were living in poverty.
“As states across the country pass laws that
make trans people and their families less safe,
New York state can use this budget to reject
that bigotry,” state Senator Jessica Ramos said.
“Funding the TGNC Wellness & Equity Fund
is a commitment that puts a dollar amount to
our values and recognizes that TGNC people
are the experts in building their own solutions.
We were able to get $1 million in the Senate
one-house budget, which is historic, but still
insuffi cient. I urge our leaders to expand the
funding.”
Mayor Adams announces plan to lift mask mandate for kids between the ages of 2 and 4
BY ETHAN STARK-MILLER
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
Mayor Eric Adams announced if COVID
19 case numbers hold steady, children
between the ages of 2 and 4 will no longer be
required to wear face masks in school and
daycare settings come April 4.
“We are continuing our serious moment of
peeling back the masks off the faces of our
people as we continue the process of getting
our city really back to a level of normality,”
Adams said. “We want to see our baby’s faces;
I’ve said this over and over again. And our
children want to see the faces of their loved
ones.”
Parents will still have the option to have
their children between 2 and 4 continue to
wear masks in school and daycare.
Adams said that aft er removing masks for
K-12 students two weeks ago, the administration
wanted to wait two more incubation
periods before removing the mandate for
2- to 4-year-olds.
“It’s now been two weeks since we removed
the mask mandate for K-12 public school children,
and our percent positivity in schools
has, thankfully, remained low,” Adams
said. “Each day, we review the data, and if
we continue to see low levels of risk, then,
on Monday, April 4, we will make masks
optional for 2- to 4-year-old children in
schools and daycare settings. Th is will allow
us suffi cient time to evaluate the numbers
and make sound decisions for our youngest
New Yorkers. We must get this right
for the health of our kids, and I refuse to
jeopardize their safety by rushing a decision.”
However, Adams said, the decision is contingent
on where COVID case numbers are in
two weeks. Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the city’s new
health commissioner, said they’ll carefully
watch the numbers over the next two weeks
and may have to adjust if they are higher than
current levels before or aft er April 4.
In response to a reporter’s question about
why the decision to lift this mask mandate
is being made now, as the new COVID BA.2
subvariant is on the rise, Vasan said they’re
currently not seeing evidence that severe
illness from the variant is tied to any age
group.
“At this point, we’re very concerned about
the long-term eff ects of COVID in everyone,”
Vasan said. “We’re concerned about the longterm
eff ects in our children, and we’re constantly
monitoring them. Right now overall
risk remains low. Overall cases in children
remain low. Hospitalizations in children
remain low, which is giving us comfort to
make this decision at this point.”
Adams emphasized that while many parents
will be happy to see the mask mandate go
by the wayside, others will insist he continue
to keep it in place.
“It doesn’t matter what decision you make
on this, you’re going to have vociferous people
on all sides of the conversation,” Adams
said. “And so, we can’t go by the noise, we
have to go by the science. And we have to go
by the safety of our children. Every call that
I receive, from parents of children 2 to 4
years old, that say, ‘Can you do it right away?’
I get another call from parents who are in
school or daycare with the children saying,
‘Can you please don’t do it.’ So, let’s not think
that this argument or this conversation is
one-sided. It is not.”
And it’s important to stick with the science,
Adams said, especially in a city like New York
where people have strong opinions on both
sides of an issue and it’s impossible to please
everyone.
Courtesy of Cruz’s offi ce
Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz rallies with colleagues and transgender advocates in Albany to urge the
establishment of a statewide transgender wellness and equity fund.
Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Offi ce
/WWW.QNS.COM
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