As one of his final acts in office, outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to distribute $2 million in “emergency funding” to roughly 20 organizations serving transgender, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary New Yorkers.
The grants are intended to counter federal budget cuts and Trump administration efforts to block LGBTQ organizations — particularly those serving transgender people — from receiving federal funding, reports Gay City News.
The funding, the first of its kind in the nation, will be administered by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The money is intended to support community organizations providing services to gender-diverse communities, including “health and wellness, legal advocacy, youth and family support, safety and crisis response, community building, and economic empowerment,” according to the release.
Eligible groups can receive up to $92,000 each, to be used for staffing, travel, supplies, or services — provided that most of the people they serve are transgender, gender-nonconforming, or nonbinary.
CitizensNYC, a nonprofit that acts as an intermediary between the city and applicants to help disburse funding, is partnering with the city on the program, though city officials will ultimately decide which organizations receive grants.
Organizations seeking funding must submit an application by Monday, January 5, at 5 p.m.
Adams’ last-minute pledge comes as a welcome development for community-based organizations serving transgender, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary people, many of which struggle to maintain stable funding and have increasingly come under attack from conservative and populist-leaning critics who oppose public spending on LGBTQ-related services. The Trump administration has also made clear its intent to deny or rescind federal funds from organizations serving sexual and gender minority communities.
Trump has issued several executive orders seeking to slash funding for LGBTQ organizations that serve transgender people, recognize transgender identity as valid, or engage in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
In September, for instance, the Trump administration announced it was canceling roughly $36 million in funding to New York City in retaliation for the city’s nondiscrimination policies protecting transgender and gender-diverse communities. The city sued the administration in an effort to restore the funding.
More recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed rules threatening to strip Medicare and Medicaid funds from health providers that offer gender-affirming care to transgender youth, a move critics describe as coercive.
“There are essential services at stake for this community,” First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro said in a statement, citing the need created by existing and proposed federal budget cuts. “Therefore, it was an imperative for us to take action and fill that need.”
In a surprise appearance on Sunday, Nicki Minaj addressed Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2025, an annual conference aimed at younger MAGA activists, where she reaffirmed her recent anti-transgender views.
The rapper built her career with the help of a deeply devoted fanbase known as “Barbz,” many of whom are gay men. At the event, the “Super Bass” singer repeated the phrase “Boys, be boys” while seated on stage beside conservative lightning-rod Erika Kirk.
She continued her attacks on California Governor Gavin Newsom at the December 21 event, while offering effusive praise for the president and vice president.
The year's nearly out. Sometimes that calls for taking sweet stock of the past months' wonderful events. Coming to the end of 2025, on the other hand, is more like getting to that denouement in the action movie where the survivors take a breath and pat each other on the back for having made it out alive. At this stage, we are Newt getting tucked-in to her Sulaco hibernation tube.
With some effort and a pinch of luck, may we all fare better in 2026 than poor Newt's end at the start of Alien 3.
Why such a shitty year? So much of it, obviously, can be laid at the feet of Lame Duck Donald. Not that he hasn't had loads of assistance in his evil efforts to erase our transgender family and friends, colleagues, and leaders during 2025. The purge, as promised, began right out of the gate on Inauguration Day.
Justine Lindsay, the NFL's first out transgender cheerleader, recently revealed that she was fired this year, a decision she alleges was motivated by transphobia and Donald Trump's election as president.
"I was cut because I'm trans," Lindsay said in an Instagram Live with Gaye Magazine. "I don't wanna hear nobody saying, 'She didn't wanna come back.' Why the hell would I not wanna come back to an organization that I've been a part of for three years? That makes no sense to me. So I was cut. I was devastated. It stung. I was hurt."
Lindsay, who made history as the NFL's first transgender cheerleader when she tried out and made the Carolina Panthers's TopCats squad in 2022, told the magazine that her teammates "know the truth" about the decision to cut her from the squad.
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