2023 LGBTQ+ Power Players

Lee Soulja (he/him) is a celebrated visual performance artist, actor, and dancer. He is the founder of the NYC Center for Black Pride, which produces New York City’s annual Black Pride celebration, and is a founding member of Pride and Power, NYC Black and Latino LGBTQ Coalition, and PANYC. He has also sat on the LGBT Task force for the Manhattan borough president, the NYC public advocate and the police commissioner. He’s received several honors for community service, including those from former Governor Cuomo and New York City Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Bill De Blasio.

Which LGBTQ+ icons do you look up to?
I look up to and admire these icons; Charles Angel (Founder of GMAD), Gil Gerald, George Bellinger and Craig G. Harris (HIV Activist).

What actions do you hope to see the government taking to support the LGBTQ+ community?
Issue an amendment to the Constitution granting equal human rights to all individuals regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation. 

What do you wish people outside of the community knew about the LGBTQ+ community?
We are normal human beings and not sexual deviants.

Can you recommend any top book, film, or TV shows that represent the LGBTQ+ experience?
A film called The Inspection was an excellent example of the experience of many LGBTQ people whose parent doesn’t approve of their sexuality and identity.

Kiara St. James, founder and executive director of New York Transgender Advocacy Group, has spearheaded many legislative wins and her organization has raised $20.000.00 to assist Black undocumented Trans and non-binary folks apply for legal status. Black undocumented immigrants are twice as likely to be deported. This fall, she hopes to take over Time Square to raise awareness for the Trans community across the country.

Which LGBTQ+ icons do you look up to?
Monica Roberts

What actions do you hope to see the government taking to support the LGBTQ+ community?
We need more equity and wellness funds for Black and Brown Trans-led communities.

What do you wish people outside of the community knew about the LGBTQ+ community?
That the TGNCNBIA community is the most targeted and the least funded community.

Can you recommend any top book, film, or TV shows that represent the LGBTQ+ experience?
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Jon Staff is the founder and CEO of Getaway, a company that provides simple, unplugged escapes to tiny cabins outside of major cities across the United States. Getaway grew from Jon’s lifelong appreciation for the great outdoors, having grown up in a cabin in rural northern Minnesota. He earned his A.B. and MBA from Harvard University and now lives in Brooklyn with his partner, Michael.

Which LGBTQ+ icons do you look up to?
There are tons, but in this moment I am going to say Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the transgender member of the Montana state legislator who was literally silenced for bringing urgent attention to the fact that trans folks in particular have long deeply suffered and it is getting worse in this backwards political moment.

What actions do you hope to see the government taking to support the LGBTQ+ community?
We have to protect our trans community by allowing them the fundamental freedom we all expect to live a life in pursuit of our highest happiness. We need to provide much more housing and support for the LGBTQ+ youth who are still disowned and kicked out of their homes in crazy numbers. We also need to pass the Equality Act to ensure non-discrimination across the board.

What do you wish people outside of the community knew about the LGBTQ+ community?
Speaking for myself: gay spaces (like bars and clubs) long served as refuges. Most people (gay, and certainly straight) worked hard to avoid being seen in them. The secret is now out: these places are great! Nonetheless, they are still safe havens that we need to remain majority LGBTQ+. So, while we are a welcoming group and there are no hard rules it is important for allies to be thoughtful as they enjoy these places.

Can you recommend any top book, film, or TV shows that represent the LGBTQ+ experience?
I can’t recommend The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai highly enough. As a gay man who was not of age during the height of the AIDS epidemic this book about living in the gay community in 1980s Chicago more deeply connected me to the past that is and should be inescapable for us all. It also drives home the power of “chosen family” and the complexity of intergenerational experience.

Mustafa Sullivan started his movement work in 1999 at an environmental justice program in Van Cortlandt Park. As a youth organizer and director of Sistas and Brothas United in 2001, he built city wide and Bronx-based campaigns. He collaborated with nation-wide youth organizing groups and started the Alliance for Educational Justice where he served as the National Campaign Organizer in 2010. In 2014, he joined Gay Straight Alliance Network as director of national programs. He was excited to join FIERCE in 2016 as board co-chair then as executive director.

Meg Ten Eyck is the CEO of EveryQueer. Meg is a featured speaker and subject matter expert at travel conferences worldwide. Meg serves on the board of directors of IGLTA and on the LGBT advisory board of Belmond Hotels and Resorts. Since starting in the LGBT travel industry, Meg has visited 65+ countries, spoken at LGBTQ conferences on five continents, published her first book and had her content read by more than ten million people.

Which LGBTQ+ icons do you look up to?
I look up to powerful queer women who’ve dedicated their energy to improving our community and the conditions we face. Eddie Windsor in particular is one of my heroes.

What actions do you hope to see the government taking to support the LGBTQ+ community?

• Address the epidemic of anti-transgender violence and intact a federal law designating transgender as a protected class.
  
• Expand upon Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and enumerate the act to denote employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
  
• Address systemic racism through grants for nonprofits focused on the unique needs of LGBTQ+ people of color

What do you wish people outside of the community knew about the LGBTQ+ community?
I wish straight/cis-gender people realized that we’re not reduced to our sexuality. While sexuality is one aspect of our identity, LGBTQ+ people have our own culture rooted in thousands of years of history and oppression. Queerness is not new and can be found in every country in the world.

Can you recommend any top book, film, or TV shows that represent the LGBTQ+ experience?
The 11 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was one of the best queer books I’ve read this year. I also really enjoyed Heartstopper on Netflix and found it to be sweet and charming and an endearing look at what it felt like to be a queer teenager.

Glennda Testone is the executive director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. Since joining, she has strengthened its programs for adults, youth, and families, ensuring all LGBTQ New Yorkers have an opportunity to live happy, healthy lives. Testone completed a $9M renovation to transform The Center’s home on 13th Street, partnered with Google to launch the virtual reality experience of Stonewall Forever, and helped lead the racial equity transformation of the organization.

Which LGBTQ+ icons do you look up to?
This year, the Center is celebrating 40 years of service to LGBTQ+ New Yorkers. In that time, we’ve had the honor of celebrating so many notable icons for our community that make me proud and keep me inspired. In addition to all of the champions that we have celebrated, Edie Windsor, Cecilia Gentili, and Alok Vaid-Menon come to mind as trailblazers who I very much look up to.

What actions do you hope to see the government taking to support the LGBTQ+ community?
I’d like to see our state and federal lawmakers take action to support and defend the rights of LGBTQ+ people, particularly TGNC and BIPOC members who are under-resourced and face outsized harm. There are proposed bills all over that are attempting to use policy to enforce discrimination against us. In NY, passing the Safe Haven for Transgender Youth and Families Act is necessary for the lives of transgender youth and their families who seek refuge.

What do you wish people outside of the community knew about the LGBTQ+ community?
I wish people realized that what’s good for LGBTQ+ people is good for all people. We deserve the same rights, protections, and opportunities to live full lives as our cis and straight counterparts. Our contributions, dreams, hopes, and struggles are no less valid simply because of who and how we love or how we live into our gender.

Can you recommend any top book, film, or TV shows that represent the LGBTQ+ experience?
In 2019 The Center honored Micaela Jaé Rodriguez at our annual Women’s Event. What she and the rest of the cast did on Pose was nothing short of spectacular. Choosing a book is so hard because The Center is home to a fabulous queer bookstore — The Bureau of General Services, Queer Division, and it’s full of amazing books of all kinds that showcase the LGBTQ+ experience.

Daniel W. Tietz leads the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, an agency charged with overseeing support programs and economic assistance for low-income New Yorkers. He has long advocated on behalf of LGBTQI+ rights and social justice concerns. Previously, he served as CEO of Bailey House; as chief special services officer for the New York City Department of Social Services; as executive director of ACRIA; and in leadership roles for Housing Works, among other positions.

Which LGBTQ+ icons do you look up to?
Melissa Sklarz; Billie Jean King; Robbie Kaplan; Jason Collins; Barney Frank; Rachel Maddow

What actions do you hope to see the government taking to support the LGBTQ+ community?
To actively defend and protect the community from discrimination and violence in any form, especially against transgender and gender non-conforming people, and most notably BIPOC TGNC, who too often suffer from gross hate and ignorance from right-wing lawmakers all across the country, all of which literally threatens our lives.

What do you wish people outside of the community knew about the LGBTQ+ community?
We’re not the cause of your problems nor the enemy, and that especially applies to all the efforts to demonize and make “illegal” TGNC people.

Can you recommend any top book, film, or TV shows that represent the LGBTQ+ experience?
Jazz singer and Chelsea resident Andy Bey is a national treasure! Anything and everything from Michael R. Jackson; Danez Smith; and Jericho Brown.

Beverly Tillery is the executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, an organization that empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) and HIV-affected communities and allies to end all forms of violence through organizing and education and supports survivors through counseling and advocacy. She is an experienced thought leader, advocate and national organizer with three decades of experience working in social justice movements. 

U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres is a fighter and trailblazer from the Bronx who has spent his entire life working for the community he calls home. In 2013, at the age of 25, Ritchie became New York City’s youngest elected official and the first openly LBGTQI+ person elected to office in the Bronx. Today, he serves as congressman for New York’s 15 Congressional District and is the first openly gay Afro-Latino member of Congress.

Which LGBTQ+ icons do you look up to?
Harvey Milk, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Edie Windsor

What actions do you hope to see the government taking to support the LGBTQ+ community?
It’s time for Congress to finally pass the Equality Act to prohibit discrimination at the federal level on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity and extend civil rights protections to members of the LGBTQI+ community.

What do you wish people outside of the community knew about the LGBTQ+ community?
As simple as it sounds, I wish people outside the community knew that we’re literally just human beings who deserve to exist without fear of hate, violence, and discrimination with the same freedoms as everyone else, including the freedom to love who we love with full and equal protections and rights under the law.

Can you recommend any top book, film, or TV shows that represent the LGBTQ+ experience?
Love, Victor and Love, Simon

Jeffrey Trachtman is a litigator and former chair of Kramer Levin’s Pro Bono Committee who has been taking on high-profile LGBTQ pro bono cases for more than 25 years – including serving as co-counsel with Lambda Legal in Hernandez v. Robles, the New York marriage equality case, and authoring amicus briefs in virtually every major Supreme Court LGBTQ rights case since Dale v. Boy Scouts.

Which LGBTQ+ icons do you look up to?
I have special respect for the earliest pioneers who overcame multiple forms of oppression to make a difference–from Bayard Rustin to Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson–but also more recent leaders and heroes I was privileged to know personally, like Larry Kramer and Edie Windsor.

What actions do you hope to see the government taking to support the LGBTQ+ community?
Right now the major priority is fighting to protect youth, especially trans youth, whose basic right to medical treatment and even existence is under attack. We need to build a national consensus to leave treatment decisions to medical professionals and stop trying to suppress discussion in schools of issues affecting LGBTQ youth.

What do you wish people outside of the community knew about the LGBTQ+ community?
I just wish everyone outside the community could get to know more people within the community. When people started realizing that they knew gay people and they were just people in their community, hearts and minds changed on marriage equality and other issues. Now the problem is that most people still don’t know anyone who is trans – once they do, their understanding and empathy is likely to grow. So representation and visibility are key.