LGBTQ+ Power Players

Barbara Warren (she/her), Psy.D., CPXP, is senior director for LGBT programs and policies in the Mount Sinai Office for Diversity and Inclusion, leading implementation of LGBT-competent care across the Health System, and assistant professor of medical education at the School of Medicine, teaching best practices for LGBTQI patients. She has had a distinguished career in education, public policy, and advocacy promoting LGBTQ health and social justice equity.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
I have two: the NYC Heritage of Pride PrideFest where hundreds of booths representing corporations, community-based organizations, arts, entertainment, and healthcare providers share resources and support LGBTQ+ visibility and inclusion for thousands of visitors celebrating Pride. I also love when the Empire State Building and the White House is lit up for the month in rainbow colors.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Richard Burns, former executive director who was my boss/mentor of 21 years when I worked for the NYC LGBT Community Center, who with great humility and integrity brought so many grassroots groups and community centers nationwide into visibility and activism for social change; my dear friend and colleague Janet Weinberg (RIP) who was a leader at the Center and Gay Men’s Health Crisis and tireless advocate for LGB and transgender rights; and all of the so many brave transgender folx who created awareness and claimed space in the queer liberation movement for their/our gender diverse communities.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
Find a way to get involved in whatever small way or more if you can, in contributing to, supporting, or participating in the queer liberation movement at the intersections of shared values and identities of other communities fighting for social justice and health equity. Corporations with a lot of social and financial capital can make significant contributions to supporting and sustaining LGBTQ+ rights through both fiscal support of queer organizations and taking a stand against political and social injustices and anti-LGBTQ+ laws and policies.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Become a leader and sustain that leadership with the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index which includes LGBTQ inclusive benchmarks, policies, and best practices, which are both employee- and consumer-facing. Allocate profits to philanthropic support of LGBTQ activities and causes. Recruit, hire, retain, and promote LGB and especially BIPOC transgender and gender diverse employees.

Kim Watson-Benjamin (she/her) is the LGBTQ coordinator for New York City’s Office of the Public Advocate. She is also the co-founder and executive director of Community Kinship Life, a Bronx-based organization that has been providing resources, economic opportunities, and support to members of the transgender community, specifically Black trans women, since 2007. Drawing on her own experience as a transgender woman, Kim Watson-Benjamin has been a longtime advocate and mentor in the LGBTQ+ community. 

Melanie Willingham-Jaggers (she/her or they/them) is the executive director at GLSEN, a national nonprofit that works to ensure K-12 education is safe, affirming, and liberating for all students, including LGBTQ+ students. Their work is rooted in racial, gender and disability justice. Before joining GLSEN in 2019 as deputy executive director, Melanie served as the program associate director of The Worker Institute at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and board chair of The Audre Lorde Project.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
Each year, it’s a joy and an honor to work with our GLSEN state chapters and student leaders to support Pride celebrations in communities across the country. Each is a unique testament to the resilience, vibrance and power of our community.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Black women are my political home and North Star. I am inspired by my political foremothers who dreamt of freedom, such as Pauli Murray, a queer, gender-expansive person, whose work laid the foundation for the expansion of our democracy — for Black people, for women, for lesbian, gay and bisexual people and especially for trans folks. That said, I am striving to pour as much love, strength, and support as I can into the next generation of youth and community advocates I work with. They’re the ones that keep me striving for the world we need and deserve.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
Now more than ever, we must invest in our future by investing in our students’ education. Individuals can take steps like joining local GLSEN chapters, participating in their local school boards and registering to vote. Businesses can work to align their own products and services with diverse audiences, and also amplify and contribute resources to the grassroots work of LGBTQ+ leaders in their communities year-round.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Business leaders have a responsibility to affirm the dignity of their LGBTQ+ employees by respecting names and pronouns and providing equal health care and benefits to LGBTQ+ employees and their families. And in the face of anti-trans and anti-queer political attacks and rhetoric, businesses must leverage their influence to speak out and condemn these attacks as harmful not only to their LGBTQ+ employees but to the whole community.

Doug Wirth (he/him) has served as president and CEO of Amida Care since 2006. Under his tenure, Amida Care’s successful care model, designed to deliver specialized care to people needing intensive services, has empowered thousands of New Yorkers affected by HIV to take control of their health and get about the business of living their lives. Amida Care has become the largest Medicaid managed care Special Needs Health Plan in New York, with 8,500+ members throughout New York City, including people living with HIV/AIDS; people experiencing homelessness, regardless of HIV status; and TGNC people, regardless of HIV status.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
The Pride Parade is a favorite, because your eyes and heart are moved by beautiful people expressing the fierce diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community!

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
The unapologetic truth-tellers Michael Callen and Audre Lorde. The eloquent, passionate, humanistic love of James Baldwin. The fierce and uproarious Cecilia Gentili. The intensely creative and profoundly beautiful Billy Porter. The visionary and humanitarian architect Richard Burns.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year round, not just during Pride Month?
Invest in LGBTQIA+ organizations, especially in trans-led organizations.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Commit to becoming an anti-racist organization, which will ask you to be intentional, plan and take concrete steps to root out the insidious expressions of structural racism that you likely don’t know are there.

Advance Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) with a commitment to support the voices and create a strong sense of belonging for ALL employees, including LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC people.

Chris Woods (he/him) serves as the senior director of inclusive policy and director of the LGBTQ+ Center within the Office of Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Strategic Innovation at New York University. He is the primary point of contact for inclusive policies, practices, and initiatives for LGBTQ+ students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Additionally, he collaborates with University partners and leadership on inclusive policy development and operational work to advance the University’s core mission in support of global inclusion, diversity, belonging, equity, and access.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
Pride is such a special time in NYC — for celebration, reflection, community, and organizing that advances the liberation of LGBTQ+ communities. One of my favorite Pride Month events is Fusion, the New York City Anti-Violence Project’s annual pride party. In addition to serving as a space for queer and trans joy and celebration, the event brings together people committed to raising funds for AVP’s critical and life-changing anti-violence work that empowers LGBTQ+ and HIV-affected survivors of sexual, intimate partner, and hate violence through advocacy and counseling and seeks to end violence through organizing and education.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
One thing that keeps me moving through difficult moments is reflecting on the words of our queer and trans elders and ancestors who paved possibilities that have allowed for many of us to be seen and understood as LGBTQ+ people. Audre Lorde — who described herself as Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, and poet — is one of those icons whose writing continues to inspire me daily, including my favorite quote: “When I dare to be powerful — to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
There are countless ways to contribute to LGBTQ+ communities in NYC and beyond year-round. If available, giving financial resources to support the life-changing and life-saving work of nonprofit and community-based organizations, educational programs, and mutual aid funds that serve intersectional LGBTQ+ communities can be critical to the advancement of this work. If you want to dig deeper into community involvement, serve as a volunteer for LGBTQ+ organizations that align with your values and interests. Purchase from LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and women-owned businesses. Consume books, films, and television that center the rich and intersectional lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ people.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Businesses need to do deep internal work to ensure that their environments are inclusive through their hiring practices, retention strategies, community-building, and organizational and brand representation. One strategy is moving away from performative practices (e.g., rainbows to represent LGBTQ+ communities during Pride Month) towards transformational action where LGBTQ+ communities are embedded in internal and external communications, engagement opportunities, and in positions where they see themselves reflected in all aspects of an organization year-round.

For the past decade, Ian (he/him) has been engaged in political movements for LGBTQIA+ and immigrant rights. Prior to joining QDEP, while living in Paris (2008-2014), Ian worked at OUTrans, a grassroots organization that fights for rights of transgender people. Ian has worked at QDEP since 2017. He has contributed to the process of building a member-led environment, as well as expanding the support QDEP provides to LGBTQIA+ folks incarcerated by ICE on the West Coast. Ian is a white trans person from Poland that lived as an undocumented immigrant in the U.S.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
My favorite Pride Month event is Queens Pride March. It is a great event with a lot of grassroots organizations that support LGBTQ immigrants living in New York City. QDEP’s members love Queens Pride and we always have a lot of fun participating in it. We can march alongside our partners such as Colectivo Intercultural TRANSgrediendo, Caribbean Equality, or ACQC.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
LGBTQ+ activists that have inspired me and my approach to organizing are Black feminists such as bell hooks, Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, Octavia Butler, and Black trans women such as Marsha P. Johnson, Miss Major, and their Latina sister, Silvia Rivera. The long tradition created by them and so many other amazing activists consists of speaking up and fiercely fighting against injustice, breaking the silence and isolation with solidarity, integrity, love, celebration of our communities and mutual support —  values guiding and grounding me in my work and private life.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
I think what is needed to support our work is redistribution of resources. Our communities do not have the same access to housing, health insurance, food, work, clothes, etc. than others have. Sharing access to those vital resources and joining us in our fight for queer and trans liberation and for the abolition of ICE by attending our political education workshops, events, and joining our volunteer programs would be a great support to us and our movement.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Hire us and treat us with the respect and dignity that we deserve. Bring community organizations like Silvia Rivera Law Project to do a training at your work on creating a healthy work environment for trans people. Teaching your team about our needs and struggles helps a lot to create inclusive conditions where members of our communities can work and grow. There are so many great consultants, organizations and materials that can provide you with this knowledge.