LGBTQ+ Power Players

Chris Coffey (he/him) is the CEO of Tusk Strategies, where he runs political, media, and legislative campaigns not just in New York, but across the country. In 2017, Chris advised Corey Johnson’s winning campaign for Speaker of the City Council, and in 2021 led Andrew Yang’s bid for mayor as co-campaign manager. Before Tusk, he worked for Mayor Bloomberg for 12 years at City Hall. Chris serves as the chair of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy and sits on the board of The Trevor Project, which works to prevent suicides in LGBTQ+ teens. He lives in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, with his husband and their two children.

Sean Ebony Coleman (he/him) is the founder and executive director of Destination Tomorrow, a national LGBTQ organization with centers located in the South Bronx and Atlanta, serving the community through educational, financial, housing, health, and personal support programs. As a nationally recognized leader in the transgender community and the first African American of transgender experience to operate a LGBTQ center in the state of New York, Sean is also the only Black trans grantmaker in the country and is the founder and managing partner of Sean Ebony Coleman Consulting.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
My favorite Pride month celebration is Bronx Pride Week, hosted by my center Destination Tomorrow in partnership with a few other LGBTQ+ organizations. From June 14-18, we have a week filled with various events including a movie screening, cookout, and our annual Bronx Pride Festival that has a parade and entertainment showcase. Bronx Pride Week is a chance for our community to gather to celebrate our identity and uniqueness in a completely safe environment.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Bayard Rustin had such a brilliant political mind, but was never able to achieve the same type of success in politics as others because of his identity. The world was denied his beautiful mind because folks couldn’t wrap their heads around who and how he loved. James Baldwin is also an inspiration because of his brutal honesty. He showed that people can love their country and still be critical. Both deserved so much more than what they got, but I hope they are happy with the progress we’ve made, especially with how much young LGBTQ+ people can now express themselves.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
It is important for businesses to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round to avoid performative allyship. Creating an inclusive environment and creating a safe place is critical in showing support for these people. This can include increasing resources for LGBTQ+ employees, putting signage up to support the community year-round, and including LGBTQ folks in marketing and advertising.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Businesses can create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons by being open and responsive to their needs. One easy way to do this is to start an affirming discussion to include pronouns on employee name tags, which will begin and normalize discussions around acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community. This simple method is an amazing way to allow employees to self-identify and for LGBTQ patrons to recognize the workplace as a safe space.

Justin Cortes (he/him) is the chief of staff for the Office of the Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson. He is a product of the public school system and graduated from two CUNY colleges. From director of operations for Norwegian Cruise Line to financial analyst for Citibank, Justin has developed an arsenal of transferable skills and experience that he has used throughout his tenure in New York City Council (2015-2021). As the chief of staff for the borough president, he oversees a team of 70 people working in favor of all Bronx Residents.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
Pride Events from the Office of the Bronx Borough President because we love to showcase the labor of love and sacrifice from Bronxites. We honor them and provide them an opportunity to tell their story, and we amplify their amazing work in the community.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Anthony Bowens is a cis-gender openly gay wrestler. His profession is considered to be a male-dominated, testosterone-filled industry. Therefore, his authenticity, courage, and resiliency in the face of these perceived notions around his career is inspiring. By choosing to live his most authentic truth, he is inspiring others and opening doorways for those who wish to follow in his same career path.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
1. Allow opportunities for folks who count as transgender and non-binary to occupy spaces and environments where they can be seen and their voices can perpetuate change. They should receive the same opportunities as cisgender straight males.

2. Allow/provide tuition assistance for LGBTQ+ youth seeking to get a start in life. As we know, roughly 40% of these youth enter the shelter system. We want to create opportunities for generational wealth for all.

3. Proactively seek out qualified LGBTQ people for leadership roles. Too often we are discounted based off of stigmas and stereotypes rather than our qualifications.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Businesses can create more inclusive environments by acknowledging pronouns, having gender-neutral bathrooms, and allowing folks who identify as LGBTQ+ to hold powerful positions within their institutions.

Elisa Crespo (she/her) is a transgender advocate and former public servant based in the Bronx. She is the executive director of the NEW Pride Agenda — a statewide LGBTQ+ advocacy organization. Ms. Crespo and her efforts have been featured in numerous media platforms including LGBTQ Nation, OUT Magazine, Marie Claire, and NBC News. Elisa was listed in The Advocate magazine’s “2021 LGBTQ Women of the Year” list, City and State’s “2022 Pride Power 100” and “2021 Power of Diversity: Latino 100” lists.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
Chilling at the Pier by Christopher Street.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Cecilia Gentili
Sylvia Rivera
Indya Moore
Andrea Jenkins

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
Hire trans people.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Promoting those with lived experience as opposed to the usual suspects or someone who is mediocre. Paying people equitably — including across race and gender. Hiring gender expansive people, period. Having cultural competency trainings for staff and providing additional resources or benefits to employees that can help with their quality of life and health.

Lisa Davis (they/them) is an associate professor of law; special adviser on gender persecution to the International Criminal Court prosecutor and; co-director of the Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic at CUNY Law School. Lisa also serves as senior legal advisor to MADRE. Professor Davis has written and reported extensively on international human rights and gender justice issues, including women’s rights and LGBTQI+ rights in conflict and disaster settings.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
Each year I try to attend pride festivals locally or globally. In New York City, I always try to attend as many events as I can, especially when they are in my home borough of Brooklyn.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
There are so many feminists, activists, lawyers, and scholars, such as Miss Major, Audre Lorde, Rhonda Copelon, and Paisely Currah, to name a few, who inspire so many of us and our local and global communities. I would be remiss not to also name Jessica Stern, the special envoy on LGBTQI+ rights, who is not only my partner, but one of my greatest inspirations. Their dedication to making the world safer and more empowered for LGBTQI+ persons serves as a lantern for us all.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
Volunteer! Donate! Get involved! Whether it’s helping at the local or the global community level, the movement is always in need of more resources. From The Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS) to the Transgender Law Center to OutRight Action International, there are so many diverse organizations working to advance LGBTQI+ rights and awareness that finding the right one that matches our interests is possible.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Supporting employee well-being by creating supportive programs that foster community is essential for any working environment. It’s important to take an intersectional approach to building an inclusive workplace, recognizing that employees who identify as LGBTQI+ may also belong to other historically oppressed communities. There are great resources available, such as Project Inkblot, that help businesses shift thinking around equity and its relationship to the people they work with.

Émilia (she/her) is a socialist organizer with NYC-DSA and an out transgender woman. Since 2018, she has served on the New York State Democratic Committee, and, since 2020, as a Queens County Democratic district leader. She works with other queer advocates for the legal inclusion of non-binary New Yorkers, most recently via the Gender Inclusive Ballot Act, which she authored and which is set to pass this year. She lives in Sunnyside with her fiancée, Siobhán.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
The Queer Liberation March allows me to feel free and authentic in my identity and the body I have created for myself, while preserving and honoring the history of Pride as a riot against state-sanctioned violence against our community.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
I am personally inspired by the work of ACT UP! organizers in the 80s and 90s, who left no tool unused in getting the Federal government to recognize the urgency of the AIDS crisis. We could learn something from their tenacity today.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
Not support organizations and political officials and candidates who are committed to our extinction.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Pay for gender-affirming surgeries and other medical procedures like hair removal and voice training. Give trans people recovering from surgeries paid medical leave.

DJ Tikka Masala (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based DJ, producer, and artist. She was appointed to the NYC Mayor’s Office Nightlife Advisory Board by former Mayor Bill De Blasio in 2018. She is resident DJ at Henrietta Hudson, one of New York’s city’s original lesbian focused, queer-run bars. DJ Tikka Masala also composes and produces music for the Obie and Bessie award winning feminist acrobatic dance company LAVA. Born in Kolkata, India, DJ Tikka Masala was raised primarily in Princeton, New Jersey, and is a longtime fixture of queer nightlife across New York City.

Ceyenne Doroshow (she/her) is a compassionate powerhouse performer, activist, organizer, community-based researcher and public figure in the trans and sex worker rights’ movements. As the founder and executive director of G.L.I.T.S., she works to provide holistic care to LGBTQ sex workers while serving on the following boards: SWOP Behind Bars, Caribbean Equality Project, SOAR Institute, and NYTAG. At the present time, Ceyenne is building her leadership academy and envisioning a medical center and combined housing unit in Queens, New York — building sustainability for the community like no other. 

Brian Downey is the president of the Gay Officers Action League New York. Mr. Downey began his career in criminal justice in 2005 as a clerk with the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office in New Jersey. He was appointed to the New York City Police Department in 2008, and served in the Transit Bureau Brooklyn Impact, Transit District 30, the Special Victims Division, Hate Crime Task Force, Police Commissioner’s Liaison Unit. He is currently assigned to the Criminal Intelligence Section. Mr. Downey became president of GOAL in 2016. 

Deborah Edel (she/her) is one of the founders of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, an all-volunteer grass-roots institution dedicated to gathering and preserving individual lives and histories from diverse lesbian communities. She has been working with the Archives steadily since its inception in 1974. Believing strongly in the importance of sharing skills and knowledge, she has served on various Boards and supported the development of regional archives. Trained as a social worker and psychologist, Deborah spent her working life focused on the intersectionality of education and mental health, as an educational therapist, a counselor and a school admissions director.

Retired in 2012, Deborah and her partner Teddy love to travel. Even when on the road, she finds time to connect with the needs of the Archives (especially her commitment to keeping the financial books and paying bills) and her commitment to the Board of Trustees of the Mary McDowell Friends School, where she worked for many years prior to retirement. Her life is busy and filled with adventure, social activism, the Archives, and time for reading mystery stories.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
Dyke March, Brooklyn Pride Parade, Queer Liberation March.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Joan Nestle — cofounder of Lesbian Herstory Archives, passionate writer, activist, teacher. Always raising discussion of critical issues and pushing important boundaries.

Elizabeth Kennedy — anthropologist, writer, teacher, wise lesbian. Pioneer developing Women’s and Lesbian Studies Programs and doing oral histories of lesbians.

Mabel Hampton — African-American lesbian performer, domestic and hospital worker, volunteer, LGBT and Black rights activist, courageous forerunner.

Margot Heuman — bore witness to the Holocaust as a young lesbian woman in concentration camps. Lived her life and loved to the fullest. Refused to be swallowed by hate. Told her story so the next generation would learn and not recreate the evils of the world.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
Put direct action behind words and statements. Truly commit to inclusivity, diversity, and equity in your work life and daily life. Work to elect politicians who support all LGBT+ issues. Admit when you don’t know something and be willing to change. Take direct action, support and take part in protests and demonstrations when such are needed to call attention to important LGBT+ issues.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Form a LGBT+ Task Force to evaluate and make suggestions regarding the work environment, policies, health care benefits, and practices. Be willing to not only listen to issues presented, but be open to having the Task Force group negotiate change.

Form affinity groups and support programs for employees.

Increase hiring of LGBT+ individuals to avoid tokenism.

Hold training workshops to sensitize all workers to issues of microaggressions as well as more visible issues and destructive practices.