LGBTQ+ Power Players

Christine C. Quinn (she/her) is president and CEO of Win, the largest provider of shelter and supportive services for New York City’s homeless families, where she advocates at all levels of government for policies to end homelessness. She also serves as executive committee chair of the New York State Democratic Party. Christine has dedicated her career to advancing LGBTQ rights and is the highest-ranking openly LGBTQ+ official in City history, having served as the first openly gay New York City Council Speaker from 2006 to 2013.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
It’s hard to choose — but my favorite Pride celebration is The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center’s annual Garden Party. Not only is The Center’s Garden Party a beautiful event, but it raises money for an organization that has been an anchor for the LGBTQ+ community for nearly four decades.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
There are too many to name — but a few leaders who have inspired me include the first elected official I worked for, State Senator Thomas Duane; Assemblymember Deborah Glick; Harvey Milk; and Barbara Hughes. They are all individuals who have dedicated their lives to fighting for LGBTQ+ rights and who have shown me what it truly means to be a public servant.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
Allyship can be — and should be — practiced every day. Volunteer and donate to LGBTQ+ organizations year round. Support LGBTQ+ businesses. Be an educated voter. Across the country, politicians at the local, state, and federal levels are attacking LGBTQ+ Americans, especially the youngest and most vulnerable members of our community. Use your voice and your vote to ensure that our country is moving forward, not backwards.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
The first step to creating more inclusive environments is recruiting and retaining staff from all walks of life. When your employees have different lived experiences, they will create an inclusive environment for their colleagues and customers. On a corporate level, businesses should support LGBTQ+ employee resource groups and ensure sure their health benefits cover transgender employees’ medical needs.

Therese R. Rodriguez is the chief executive officer of Apicha Community Health Center, an organization focused on increasing access to healthcare. The organization has extensive experience working with Asians and Pacific Islanders, Latinos, African Americans and other people of color, specifically with members of the LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS+ communities. Therese Rodriguez has been a leader of Apicha since 1997. Born and raised in the Philippines, Rodriguez is a longtime advocate of civil rights and increased access to health and social services for Asian and Pacific Islanders. 

Alexander Roque (he/him) has devoted his life to social services and the well-being of young people including working with children in the foster care system, those who have been abandoned, abused or rejected by their parents, and youth experiencing homelessness. In his time at the Ali Forney Center, he has expanded the agency’s capacity, infrastructure, and footprint, making it the world’s largest organization dedicated to housing and caring for LGBTQ homeless youth through a myriad of housing, clinical, and life skills programs — under his leadership, this work is now international.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
My favorite Pride event is Youth Pride, watching LGBTQ+ youth come together to share in community, in visibility, in affirmation for each other, and in Pride is perhaps the greatest reminder of why we must continue our fight for equality. There are generations of young people that are relying on us to continue to pave the road. It’s tragically the same generations that are most impacted by the detriments of hateful homophobic and transphobic rhetoric, policies, identity-based hate and violence. Our fight for our rights has impacted young people in both good and awful ways; we must always center them.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Lex Rey Perez, Skye Adrian O’Neal, Maddox Guerilla and so many other youths who have led the fight for fair housing, treatment, and care of homeless LGBTQ youths. These young people have worked, selflessly, to change the systems and barriers that impede the success and well-being of LGBTQ youths. From the steps of city hall to meeting rooms in Albany, they have worked to bring change to the great state of New York by holding our elected officials and city systems accountable in demanding that all homeless youth be housed and provided with the tools and access they need to thrive.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
Show up as a visible ally every day, keep the flags up, use pronouns in all communications, create safe and affirming spaces, denounce/reject/refuse homophobia/transphobia, and use your access/platform/business to affirm for LGBTQ people that they are welcome, accepted, and embraced.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Require LGBTQ competency training, require trans training and pronoun usage, host LGBTQ conversations year-round, and challenge coworkers to identify LGBTQ causes and issues that are important to them.

Also, donate, volunteer, get involved with local LGBTQ charities or a charity.

In addition to co-authoring the nation’s first Gay Rights Bill, Allen Roskoff (he/him) is a co-founder of the nation’s first Gay Democratic Club. Roskoff has received awards from PFLAG, the New York City Human Rights Commission, Village Independent Democrats, the New York City Council, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, the City of West Hollywood and others. Roskoff has also served as grand marshall of the Queens Gay Pride Parade, and has been a guest of honor at both Yale and Princeton’s Gay Pride Ceremonies. He continues to serve on the New York City Nightlife Advisory Board, and is trustee and secretary of New York City’s Museum of Civil Rights.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club Pride Gala and Awards Ceremony.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Jim Owles, Mark Rubin, Peter Fisher, Angela Davis, Jean O’Leary, Dr. Howard Brown, Andy Humm, Ann Northrop.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
Never contribute or support a Republican candidate, never marry or date a Republican, never have a meal with a Republican. Campaign against Republican candidates nationwide. Gaycott movies, concerts and theatres where homophobes profit. Gaycott stores and products where donors of the right profit. Confront homophobes wherever possible.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Respect members of the LGBTQ community in all they do. This includes how people are addressed, how families are recognized, and sharing reading materials that respect diversity. Employment recruitment should seek diversity, including diversity in top management. Don’t conduct business with entities and businesses that are non-inclusive or hostile to the LGBTQ community. Show support by supporting candidates for public office who are pro-LGBTQ equality and oppose measures that are hurtful.

Kenrick (he/him) has served as executive director of NQAPIA, the nation’s leading organization empowering LGBTQ+ Asians and Pacific Islanders, since February 2021. He’s founded and led several organizations, spoken at 50+ events, produced a short film, and served on a dozen boards (currently chairing the Board of Diaspora Community Services). He’s a huge advocate for LGBTQ-inclusive sports, especially tennis. He holds a B.A. in Politics from New York University, and an M.S. in Urban Policy from Hunter College. He lives with his partner, Joseph, and two cats.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
The NYC Pride Parade. My first Pride Parade was 25 years ago, my freshman year in college, and while I don’t go every year, every time I do go I am quickly reminded of how unique the space is — everyone is there, and for a few hours, in brilliance and beauty, chaos and crowds, the true diversity of our community is seen in ways that are hard to come by at any other time of the year.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Among icons, Bayard Rustin certainly. But also the countless unrecognized leaders who showed up and showed out in their own ways and were the connective tissue of generations of being and building, activism and empowerment. I always feel that much that is good and great about my life is owed to folks who certainly never met me, and likely may not have even imagined me. That is leadership — to better the lives of people you may never know and may not even imagine.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
For people — vote for pro-equality candidates at all levels of government, contribute to organizations fighting for LGBTQ rights; and use your privilege to create safer environments, particularly for marginalized LGBTQ people. For companies — all of the above, and especially fostering workplace cultures where LGBTQ+ folks are recruited, included, empowered, and promoted as their full selves. Part of that is certainly supporting Pride parades, LGBTQ organizations, and LGBTQ Employee Resource Groups, but also important are truly inclusive healthcare policies, support for pro-equality public policy, and actively seeking out LGBTQ+ talent, vendors, and contractors.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
In addition to what’s mentioned above, easily implementable policies like ensuring that biased and bigoted speech and behaviors are dealt with firmly.

Jordan Roth (he/him) is the president of Jujamcyn Theaters. He is a six-time Tony Award winning theatrical producer and majority owner of the Jujamcyn Theaters. Roth serves on the Board of Trustees of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, The Broadway League, The Times Square Alliance, and the Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation. He received the Human Rights Campaign Legacy Award in 2019, and was honored, alongside his husband Richie Jackson with the Trevor Project Hero Award in 2016 for their leadership in the LGBTQ+ community.

Floyd Rumohr (he/him) has been a management consultant, teacher, author, and transformational executive leader for nonprofit organizations focusing on education, arts, youth and children, health and human services, and LGBTQ+ communities. Floyd currently serves as the CEO of Brooklyn Community Pride Center. He was recently named among Brooklyn Power 50 (2020 and 2018) and Brooklyn Power 100 (2019) by City and State New York, and awarded the 2019 Plug’d Award of Excellence from Haitian-American Community Coalition, the 2019 Gay City News Impact Award, and the 2018 Outstanding Leadership Excel Pride Award by the My True Colors Festival.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
I enjoy participating in the Brooklyn Pride Parade. The Twilight walkthrough of Brooklyn with my community is a great experience.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Larry Kramer, an AIDS activist in the 80s, deeply inspired me. Especially with my background in theater and being a playwright, I related deeply to the play A Normal Heart. Larry showed how it felt to lose beloved gay siblings facing the AIDS epidemic in a heteronormative world. The overall theater world has inspired me as it was always accepting of myself and of all identities.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
Giving money directly to LGBTQ+ communities. Carving out an amount to donate routinely that hurts the bank account just enough — because then it’s probably just the right amount. LGBTQ+ communities are always low on funds, but abundant in new needs to serve the community, especially with new legislation attacking the community in 2022.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
It’s very important to never assume someone’s gender identity, ask people’s pronouns and respect those pronouns. I also find that auditing new hires for hints of white supremacy and transphobia are essential to a safe work environment, as well as not looking at potential employees’ graduation status or past employment as the only measure of their potential and successes.

Mayra Hidalgo Salazar (she/her) comes to the deputy executive director role at the National LGBTQ Task Force with over 13 years of experience working for social justice. Originally from Naranjo, Alajuela, Costa Rica, Mayra Hidalgo Salazar’s journey as a queer and formerly undocumented woman laid the groundwork for her commitment to organizing spearheaded by queer, immigrant youth of color.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
I love Latinx Prides because there is a tangible vitality to the way my community celebrates. Seeing LGBTQ+ Latinx people dancing with our partners to our favorite songs from our childhoods, and celebrating our culture brings me hope and joy. I also love Latinx Pride because it’s an opportunity for my parents and siblings to show up as allies and have fun. They know how to start a party!

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
I have been most inspired by trans and queer undocumented youth who pushed the envelope within the immigrant youth movement in my early organizing days by refusing to allow anyone to silence our queerness. These fierce organizers taught me so much just by being their full beautiful selves! Other noteworthy icons: Sylvia Rivera and bell hooks.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
There are innumerable ways for individuals to engage! From volunteering to supporting LGBTQ organizations with resources to engaging the people around you to get involved, we need everyone to contribute what they can more than ever. For corporations, I would say look at the ways you support and interact with our community all year round, not simply in June. From ensuring an inclusive environment for LGBTQ employees to creating safe, inclusive and welcoming spaces for your customers and clients, to looking at the larger decisions you make — where you do business and with whom — all are critical.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
It starts with who is leading your company and modeling true inclusivity and intentional diversity in representation at all levels. What are your internal policies? Are you bringing in the LGBTQ community to encourage dialogue, discussion, and education? Are you taking a stand for equity when our community needs you?

Justin Sanchez (he/him) is a born and raised Bronxite of Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Mexican descent. As president of Stonewall Democrats of New York City, he has had the honor of learning from and working with some of the best leaders that the Bronx has to offer: serving as community liaison to New York City Council Member Rafael Salamanca, Jr.; director of external affairs for Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.; and chief of staff to New York State Assembly Member Nathalia Fernandez. Justin graduated as Valedictorian from the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies and obtained his M.P.A. from NYU Wagner.

Susie Scher is a partner and chair of the Global Financing Group at Goldman Sachs. She was appointed to her current chairmanship position in 2021. Scher first joined Goldman Sachs as a summer associate in 1990, and returned to the company in 1997 as a vice president. Scher is one of the most visible and vocal openly LGBTQ women at Goldman Sachs, and has long been using her position to advocate for increased diversity. She is also an active philanthropist, particularly to support LGBTQ issues in education.