Zohran Mamdani pledges to deploy ‘hundreds of lawyers’ to combat Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies

New York mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani has vowed to “deploy hundreds of lawyers” to combat president Donald Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ ‘hate’.

Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, delivered a major upset in June when he defeated political veteran and former governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary and became the party’s nominee for the mayor’s job. He now faces Republican Curtis Sliwa and Cuomo, running as an independent, at the polls next month.

Incumbent Eric Adams ended his bid for re-election little more than a fortnight ago, after something of a rollercoaster campaign.

If elected, Mamdani would be the first Muslim and Indian American to lead the largest city in the US, with a population of 8.5 million.

In a new campaign video, Mamdani, who has never been shy about his support for the LGBTQ+ community, pledged to make New York a sanctuary city for LGBTQ+ people and pour millions of dollars into services for the community, including for housing programmes and to fund gender-affirming care.

Delivering his address sitting at a desk at the Christopher Street Pier on the Hudson River, an historic meeting point for the LGBTQ+ community, Mamdani discussed the life of trans activist Sylvia Rivera.

“In the 1970s, homeless, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of a hostile society. But it was here, on the physical margins of our city, that they found a home,” Mamdani said. “Sylvia was one of those New Yorkers. She arrived here at the age of 11, where she immediately landed in the centre of the gay rights movement.

“She befriended the legendary Marsha P Johnson, protested at Stonewall and led marches for equality. But even among the queer community, trans New Yorkers were excluded. Rivera and others were discouraged from walking in Pride, their participation erased from history.”

This exclusion “took a toll” and Rivera “developed a substance-abuse problem and was often homeless” but “when she had nowhere left to turn, she would sleep here, waves lapping nearby”, he went on to say.

“[But] no matter what hardships she faced, Sylvia Rivera advocated for others. She and Johnson founded Star to house and feed trans kids.

“The Christopher Street Pier is, like our city, a place of immense contradictions. It’s where outsiders found belonging and it’s also where Marsha P Johnson’s body was found, the victim of a suspected murder no one was ever prosecuted for.

“But even amidst this, we can chart a clear path forward that makes our city inclusive.”

President Trump has led a “a scorched earth campaign against trans people” since he was elected for his second term, the candidate added.

“The man with the most power has expended enormous energy targeting those with the least. New York will not sit idly by while trans people are attacked. We’ll deploy hundreds of lawyers to combat Trump’s hate, make New York City an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city and create the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs to allocate millions for youth and adult housing programmes as well as gender-affirming care.

“We can’t bring Sylvia back but we can honour her memory by building a city where trans New Yorkers are cherished. In a time of darkness, New York must be the light.”

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