Mamdani Says One Month Isn’t Long Enough To Celebrate Queer And Trans New Yorkers

Less than a day into “Pride Month,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani claimed 29 more days won’t be enough to celebrate queer and trans-identifying New Yorkers.

“It would take far more than a month to honor the contributions of queer and transgender New Yorkers,” Mamdani wrote Monday in an X post, and listed four related examples including the drag balls of the Harlem Renaissance, a drag beauty pageant, to celebrate.

It would take far more than a month to honor the contributions of queer and transgender New Yorkers.

From the Cercle Hermaphroditos in 1895, the first trans advocacy group in the United States, to the drag balls of the Harlem Renaissance, to the Stonewall uprising, to the…

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) June 1, 2026

Even before “Pride Month” started, the Mamdani administration had already made LGBTQ efforts a focal point of the mayor’s term. 

In March, Mamdani created the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs and appointed a trans-identifying man who goes by Taylor Brown to oversee the department’s leadership. 

The mayor’s office declined to tell The Daily Wire the city’s budget for the new office. Last year, the New York City Council revealed it had secured the highest funding yet to support “transgender and expansive New Yorkers.” 

In April, Mamdani took on the Trump administration after it removed the Pride flag on Stonewall National Monument’s federal flagpole. 

Mamdani immediately condemned the action, saying, “I am outraged by the removal of the Rainbow Pride Flag from Stonewall National Monument. New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history.”

A coalition of LGBTQ organizations sued the Trump administration. Both parties ended up settling, and the Trump administration agreed to restore the Pride flag to Stonewall National Monument within seven days. 

On the campaign trail and in his preliminary budget, Mamdani pledged $65 million for trans medical programs after the Trump Administration blocked hospitals and providers from performing transition-related medical treatments for minors from participating in Medicaid programs. 

The Mamdani administration has not yet revealed whether the city will produce funds for the promised $65 million for trans healthcare. 

New York City is expected to remain one of the nation’s most prominent hubs for “Pride Month” celebrations, even as LGBTQ organizations report a significant decline in corporate sponsorships compared with previous years.

Jordan Braxton, co-president of the United States Association of Prides, said most pride celebrations have reported declines in funding.

This year is quickly shaping up to be an even less celebrated pride month than 2025 and looks completely different from the Biden era, when pride flags were hung from the White House balcony. Since returning to office, the Trump administration states that the government now recognizes only two genders — male and female — and has pressured the states to follow suit, especially in men and women’s sports.