Mamdani Looks to Expand Access to ‘Gender-Affirming’ Care with $15 Million Investment of Taxpayer Funds
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is looking to make good on his campaign promise to invest $65 million in taxpayer funds toward expanding access to “gender-affirming care” in the Big Apple.
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“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 make sure every trans and gender non-conforming New Yorker can live with the dignity, safety and freedom they deserve,” Mamdani said at a Pride month celebration Tuesday. “The threats will continue and so will our relentless protection of trans people across this city.”
Despite efforts from the Trump administration to keep taxpayer dollars from funding gender-transition services, the mayor and his administration are doubling down on their attempts to fund these procedures — and even looking for ways to circumvent the president’s restrictions on gender-transition treatments for minors.
NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin recently spoke at a City Council health budget hearing where he made public the city’s desire to endorse these procedures for gender-confused youth without getting caught in the crossfire of the federal government.
“We are committed to this issue and want to make sure that we provide the services and resources for youth as well as making sure that we don’t expose ourselves to clawbacks from the federal government, which disrupt the rest of the care that we can give,” Martin said.
Two major city hospital systems, NYU Langone Health and Mount Sinai Health, shuttered their youth transgender programs amid concerns over threatened federal funding. The Mamdani administration, however, seems committed to maintaining access to the controversial treatments for the city’s youth.
Mamdani told The Brian Lehrer show that the $15 million will specifically fund services for gender-dysphoric youth.
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“The $15 million that we have committed is funding that would unlock exactly that [‘gender-affirming care’ for minors],” Mamdani said. “And it speaks to the fact that whether it’s Reina’s experience or so many others across the city, there are explicit consequences from both the cruelty that we’re seeing from the federal government’s policies and the decisions that are being made by private health care institutions here in New York City.”
The city, through the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, plans to open a “gender-affirming care clinic” in Corona, a neighborhood in Queens. Martin said this is “one of the first times that the public health department has ever taken that step.”
The department has told other media outlets that it will only offer treatments to patients that are at least 19 years of age, in order to avoid running afoul of the Trump administration’s mandates. However, the department did not immediately return National Review‘s request for comment regarding the timeline on the opening of the clinic and if it will serve minors, in light of the mayor’s comments.
Mamdani also previously established the city’s “first-ever office of LGBTQIA+ affairs,” in the first 100 days of his administration.
“This office focuses on the well-being of queer New Yorkers so that you know you have a champion and advocate within city government,” Mamdani said at the time.
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