Dear Friend:
I am pleased to present the 2017 edition of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Guide to Services and Resources – the most comprehensive directory of LGBTQ organizations and programs in New York City. For members of the LGBTQ community, connecting to services geared towards their needs can be a challenge. Our Guide is intended to help individuals better understand the resources available, with information on hundreds of community and health care facilities, counseling and support groups, a guide to public benefits and much more.
This year’s version of the Guide also features new online options, including the ability to map the location of key service providers across the five boroughs.
Throughout my career, I have been a strong and vocal supporter of LGBTQ rights. As an Assembly member, I was one of the first co-sponsors of a 1995 bill to enact marriage equality in the State of New York. When my wife and I married in 2010, we did so in Connecticut to protest New York’s then ongoing discrimination against lesbian and gay couples.
As Comptroller, I have continued to work hard to advance equality of opportunity for the LGBTQ community, including a number of accomplishments in the last year:
- In a letter jointly written with California State Controller Betty T. Yee, I urged the fiduciaries of other large public pension funds to embrace policies and practices that promote diversity inclusive of the LGBTQ community in corporate America. A number of those funds now have corporate governance policies and proxy voting guidelines that encourage companies to recruit diverse boards and explicitly include the LGBTQ community in their definition of diversity.
- I led a group of some of the largest investors in the world – with a combined $11 trillion in assets under management – to speak out against so-called “Bathroom Bill” legislation in North Carolina and Texas that discriminates against members of the LGBTQ community.
- Based on a policy report written by my office, the New York City Council passed a law requiring that all single-use bathrooms in New York City be labeled gender neutral, and continued to advocate for the passage of Gender Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) and fight for transgender communities of color.
- I spearheaded an effort with City and State elected officials to introduce legislation to expand anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ business owners in New York that bid on city and state contracts.
New York City continues to be an epicenter of gay rights activism in this country, on top of being one of the most LGBTQ friendly cities in the world. It is vital that in the years ahead we continue to stand up for our LGBTQ sisters and brothers, so that we don’t roll back the progress that we have fought so hard for.
If you have any questions about the Guide or would like to request copies, please send us an email at action@comptroller.nyc.gov. It is also available online at www.comptroller.nyc.gov/lgbtq. I hope that you will find LGBTQ Resource Guide a useful and powerful resource, and that together we can continue to push for the equality and dignity for all New Yorkers.
Sincerely,
Scott M. Stringer
New York City Comptroller