LGBTQ+ Power Players

Yelena Goltsman (she/her) is a Kyiv-born human rights and LGBTQ activist. In 2008 she founded RUSA LGBTQ+, a network for the Russian-speaking LGBTQ community in the U.S.A. The organization increases acceptance and inclusion of LGBTQ people within the greater Russian-speaking immigrant community and provides support to those who seek asylum in the U.S. as a result of anti-gay laws and increased homophobia in their countries. Yelena is an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ rights in the post-Soviet realm who organizes protests and campaigns that target LGBTQ rights violations in these countries.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
I enjoy celebrating the diversity of our LGBT communities during Pride Month. My favorite event is the Brighton Beach Pride, which RUSA LGBTQ+ has been organizing every year since 2017. The idea emerged at the time of horrific incidents of torture and killing of gay people in Chechnya. We decided that going out on the streets of Brighton Beach with rainbow flags is the work we should do to expand visibility of our community among those who are uncomfortable with our representation. This year we organized it in support of Ukraine to show our solidarity with the resistance against oppression.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Edith Windsor is my queer icon. She was a trailblazer; as a mathematician, she opened the profession for other women and she was one of the first women to hold a senior position at IBM. She is a true inspiration for me both as a professional and women’s and LGBTQ rights activist. She lived her life to the fullest till her last day and she would always say: «Don’t postpone joy.» When her partner died she became the lead plaintiff of the Supreme Court case for gay marriages. She was always very concerned with the fate of Russian LGBT people.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
Companies should provide diversity training throughout the year. This is especially important for global companies in countries where LGBT rights are not recognized. Corporations should connect their employees with the international community, and organize international meetings with people interested in the subject to answer their questions. These efforts should be embedded in the company policy and provided with much more frequency than once a year. The LGBT movement is not separate from other equality movements such as race equality, women’s equality, and wage equality — it is just one of many. The emphasis should be on queer women and their empowerment.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
The attention has to be given on a consistent basis. It has to be a matter of policy. The experience should be shared in global companies in countries where there are no open Pride events. People are behind in their understanding of tolerance in those countries. They should know that the LGBT community isn’t trying to separate themselves, they are being separated and oppressed by others. This is the conversation we have to have.

Jessica González-Rojas (she/her) is the assemblymember for the 34th Assembly District, which includes the Queens communities of Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst, Woodside, and Corona. She was previously the executive director at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, where she fought on the national level for immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, racial justice, and gender equity. As an elected official, she has passed legislation to advance the rights of transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary New Yorkers.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
Queens Pride!

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
I draw a lot of inspiration from the work and words of Audre Lorde. She said “there is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” I have often recited these words as I believe that the fight for racial, social, and economic justice is an intersectional one where we must connect all movements to protect and take care of each other.

She also said, “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?
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary communities are not a monolith. People should support organizations and advocacy that support these communities, including projects such as the Love Wins Food Pantry in Jackson Heights, Voces Latinas, and Colectivo Intercultural Transgrediendo.

Corporations should analyze their investments and partnerships and ensure they are not contributing to anti-LGBTQ causes. If they are doing so, they should divest from them.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Businesses should engage in training to ensure that their work environments are safer for LGBTQ and TGNCNB communities. The trans community in particular has low employment rates, so workplaces should be more intentional about hiring and promoting trans people. They can also engage in sensitivity training that ensures that they are affirming of customers, workers, and partners.

Mohammad Hamad (he/him) is an educator, artist, and human rights organizer. He serves as a co-chair of Brooklyn Pride and sat on the board for six years. His work and mindset are rooted in community and racial justice, whether that involves uplifting underserved students in New York City or championing the global movement for Palestinian human rights. Outside of this work, he is passionate about local foods and queer art, recently capturing the title of Mr. Kentucky Regional Entertainer of the Year 2022, a qualifying preliminary to a national contest.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
My favorite Pride Month event is Drag Queen Story Hour. They host events year-round, but there’s a special meaning around their work during Pride. What I find particularly special about DQSH is the aspect of innocence captured when children sit to hear and learn from a drag queen. This is such a unique and powerful way to build inclusion and positive learned behavior that can shape the kind of world where everyone feels a sense of belonging.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Haneen Maikey, Sarah Schulman, Angela Davis, Bashar Murad, Judith Butler.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
Whether we like it or not, politics drive our everyday realities. Corporations ought to divest from political committees that harm the LGBTQ+ community and invest it into local organizations. What’s the point of recruiting and hiring LGBTQ+ people if you’re funding policy work that harms us on a wider-scale? Corporations ought to shift from seeing Pride as a branding opportunity to being a source for empowerment, within the local communities they operate and behind closed doors.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Many businesses address and evaluate inclusion through a quantitative lens, approaching it as a branding opportunity. While there’s a strong financial case to be made, these businesses often struggle with retention. The reason is that they miss the mark on qualitative measures. Why build a ramp for wheelchair users if this population does not feel a sense of belonging once they’re inside? We can apply this across numerous identity markers, including race and LGBTQ identity.

A native New Yorker, Mickey Heller (he/him) is a graduate of the High School of Music & Art, Hunter College, and Brooklyn Law School. He has been practicing law for over 30 years in areas including nonprofit and real estate, and has spent the last 10 as a New York State administrative law judge. Having worked with a number of nonprofits, he is most proud of his volunteering with Brooklyn Pride, Inc., and since 2010 has served as either chair or co-chair, and parade director.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
Brooklyn Pride Week will always hold a special place in my heart and it has been an honor to serve as parade director for many years. Having the privilege of interacting with many amazing organizations, big and small, and the amazing opportunity every year to be able to introduce each group as they begin their walk in the Brooklyn Pride Parade has been incredible. Special acknowledgment to Ariel Sanders and Cam Moore for their incredible work on Brooklyn Pride 2022 and to all the volunteers.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
There are so many that have paved the way for us, even prior to Stonewall. The brave individuals and groups that took and continue to take a stand against discrimination and fought to get us the rights we have today. The fight is far from over, and there are those looking to take back much of what we fought for. We must stay strong and vigilant and continue to fight, while also celebrating who we are by showing our PRIDE.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
Support LGBTQ+ small businesses and corporations that do more than just look for our LGBTQ+ dollars. Learn what large corporations are supporting which candidates and make noise when we see them supporting candidates, politicians, and causes that look to take away our rights. People can do the same. Know where you spend your money and who the businesses support. Finally, support LGBTQ+ nonprofits with your time, talent AND treasury. There are so many incredible nonprofits and charities that need our help.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Develop Affinity Programs for employees, and make sure offices and businesses are safe spaces for both employees and patrons. Require workshops for all employees and make everyone aware that ANY discriminatory practices or speech will not be tolerated. Reach out to nonprofits to help provide information and trainings to bring awareness.

Cristina Herrera (she/her), founder and CEO of Translatinx Network, is a pioneer and leader in the trans, non-binary, and LGBQIA+ communities. She started TN in 2007 to organize and empower the transgender immigrant community through leadership development and education. Under her direction, TN has grown to become an internationally-recognized trans-led one-stop-shop, offering everything from HIV and HCV testing, health navigation, employment readiness, support groups, a food pantry, a community closet, and special events. Cristina’s knowledge and expertise is frequently sought to guide government, corporations, and media.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
It’s hard to choose one favorite Pride event. For trans communities, it’s thrilling to see millions of people come to the Manhattan Pride parade. It only exists because of the Stonewall Uprising and the liberation movement started by trans women like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. I’ve really enjoyed the smaller parades in Queens, Brooklyn, and Harlem. It’s beautiful to go to smaller neighborhoods and see pride flags in all the stores and families watching and celebrating.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
I am inspired by the thousands of trans individuals — names we will never know — who survived and thrived despite so much brutality. Trans people who stayed in abusive families because they had nowhere to go; kids who left at an early age, turning to survival sex work; trans people who have fled countries where being trans was illegal; all the people we lost to AIDS and transphobia. I’m inspired every time I see trans or non-binary people living their best life, loving themselves for who they are. I do this work in their names, to honor their lives.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
Trans, non-binary and LGBQIA+ communities need support, dignity, and respect every day. There is the internal work — exploring internal assumptions about gender, sex, and sexual orientation. We are all deeply conditioned to think about the gender binary, gender roles, “acceptable” gender behaviors. Your own process of self-inquiry can reveal a lot.

Second, be brave and take a stand. This is especially incumbent upon people in power. We ask you to be the person in the room who stands up to transphobia and other hate-based remarks or actions.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Becoming more inclusive is a process of reflection and values-building, both for companies and individuals.

Every corporation should host trans-led competency training across the organizational chart. Being inclusive means re-evaluating how you work with employees. Gender markers, correct pronouns, and names are crucial, but does your health insurance support gender-affirming care?

Further, are your products or services gendered? We encourage you to ask why. You can always contact us — we are happy to help!

Andrea Himmel (she/her) is the principal and chief investment officer of Himmel + Meringoff Properties, a privately held New York real estate investment firm. She has served in this role since joining the company in 2018. In 2017, Himmel co-founded and served as managing director of the Houston-based company Revere Resources. Before this, she had founded the predecessor company to Revere Resources, Tierra Resource Partners, LLC, for which she served as chief executive officer. 

Denise Hinds (she/her) is the chief program officer for you and family well-being at Good Shepherd Services. In 35 years at Good Shepherd Services, she has been instrumental in developing innovative programs. For 10 years, Denise has led the LGBTQ workgroup in creating a culture of awareness, acceptance, and celebration. Denise works to ensure Good Shepherd is a welcoming place for all within the LGBTQ community. Denise is also on the board of Family Equality, a national organization championing the rights and needs of LGBTQ people to have families. She is the board chair of the Newark LGBTQ Community Center.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
My favorite Pride month event is the DYKE March!! It’s one of the most exhilarating and uplifting events I participate in during Pride and one that energizes me as I continue on in this work. I especially love marching with other LGBTQIA+ people in an act of resistance rather than celebration as we continue to fight for the rights of LGBTQIA people everywhere. To me it’s a real demonstration of the strength and resilience of the community I love so much!!

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
I am most inspired daily by the life of icon Audre Lorde. Since I first read her work in my thirties she has been a guiding force and inspiration in my life. Sharing similar backgrounds being children of Caribbean parents and growing up in NYC made it easy for me to identify with her, but the power of her words and the way she lived her life unapologetically black and queer is the main thing that inspires me. She talked about learning to be unafraid to speak her truth, which helped me to find my own voice in the world.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
Everyone has a part to play. Our community is in a fight for our lives now more than ever. There seem to be forces working to ensure that LGBTQIA+ rights are stripped away. We need everyone to help us fight against this type of erasure. We need to make sure our lives and the lives of all within our LGBTQIA spectrum matter, and we need our allies and our friends more than ever to help us do that. It’s about speaking up and speaking out when- and wherever possible, not just waving a flag or wearing a rainbow shirt.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Businesses can make environments more inclusive by making sure that everyone feels welcome. Ensuring that everyone can see themselves in their branding is one way. From the moment you walk in the door, it can be the very subtle things that help employees and patrons know this is a welcoming and safe space. Encouraging the use of pronouns sends a very important message to everyone that the way they identify themselves matters and is respected.

Michael (he/him) is a founding board member of Harlem Pride. Michael has worked as a coordinator for recruitment and retention efforts for HIV Vaccine Trials Newark, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health. He represents Columbia University Medical Center in the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, and sits on the Patient and Family Advisory Council for New York-Presbyterian Ambulatory Care Network. Michael is also the chef and founder of Kai & I, Inc. a full-service boutique catering and event-planning enterprise.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
Harlem Pride!

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
People and corporations can be active with their local LGBTQ community-based organizations, vote for legislation that supports our issues, and by working on being good allies.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Businesses can create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons by openly supporting the LGBTQ community within their companies and the communities in which their companies are located.

State Senator Brad Hoylman (he/him), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, represents New York’s 27th State Senate District, which covers the heart of Manhattan, including Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen and the Upper West Side. Brad has passed dozens of bills protecting LGBTQ+ rights, including banning “gay conversion therapy”; GENDA, which extended human rights protections to transgender New Yorkers; the repeal of the “Walking While Trans” ban; and legalizing gestational surrogacy to assist LGBTQ families and those struggling with fertility.

What is your favorite Pride Month event or celebration?
The Pride March, of course. While I don’t like how corporate it’s become, there’s still no better feeling than walking down Fifth Avenue among the cheers of thousands of members of our community lining the parade route. I also love the Dyke March and the new Rise and Resist counter-march, which both demonstrate the diversity of LGBTQ New Yorkers and honor our community’s radical political roots.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
The LGBTQ+ forerunners in New York politics like Deborah Glick, the first out member of the NYS Legislature; my predecessor Senator Tom Duane, the first openly-gay member of the Senate (I’m the second); and many others like former Speaker Christine Quinn. There are many rediscovered queer icons, too, and it’s exciting to see transgender women of color — the original activists at Stonewall — finally get their due. I had the honor of knowing Sylvia Rivera when I was on the local community board 20 years ago and helped to co-name a street after her in the West Village.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride Month?
I think corporations need to put their money where their mouth is. I was recently at an event where an international bank announced a five-figure grant to the LGBTQ Center. While it’s appreciated, for all of the good publicity they received, I think they should’ve added a zero to that contribution! It’s not just about money, however. For example, Chelsea Piers, which like a lot of companies has temporarily changed its corporate logo to honor the LGBTQ rainbow flag, is hosting “Don’t Say Gay” Florida Governor DeSantis in the middle of Pride. We need to hold these companies accountable.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
One sure-fire way to create a more inclusive environment is to provide insurance coverage and benefits to LGBTQ families wanting to create families through IVF and surrogacy.

Crystal Hudson (she/her) is the New York City councilmember for New York’s 35 District. She currently serves as co-chair of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Caucus alongside fellow councilmember Tiffany Cabán. Crystal Hudson was elected to the New York City Council in 2021, making history as one of the first openly gay black women to hold office in New York City. Crystal began her career working in marketing and advertising before pivoting to public service. In response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Crystal founded Greater Prospect Heights Mutual Aid to support all members of her community.