The Daily Populous Tuesday June 2nd, 2026 morning edition
Authored by them.us and submitted by Them

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To kick off Pride Month, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the New York City Commission on Human Rights announced the launch of a public awareness campaign dedicated to the safety of transgender and gender-nonconforming people.

In partnership with the newly established Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs as well as the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene, the “Trans Rights Are Human Rights” campaign will highlight existing protections for trans and gender-nonconforming New Yorkers covered by the city’s Human Rights Law. Throughout June, informational graphics and banners designed by artist Dez Stavracos will be displayed on public transit, paper advertisements, and electric kiosks across the city, outlining the rights to which trans New Yorkers are already entitled.

LGBTQ+ Advocates Urge Mamdani to Deliver More for Trans Youth in City Budget The groups are urging the mayor to commit millions more dollars to queer and trans services.

Currently, the New York City Human Rights Law protects trans and gender non-conforming people’s right to be addressed by the correct name, be gendered correctly, express their gender freely, and use facilities such as restrooms, locker rooms, and saunas that correspond with their gender. The law also prohibits housing, employment, and public space discrimination based on someone’s gender identity or expression, as well as gender-based bias, harassment, and retaliation from law enforcement.

“At a time when the federal government is fueling attacks on trans people across this country, New York City is making something clear: We will protect your rights, defend your humanity and stand beside you without hesitation,” Mamdani said in a press release Monday. “Every trans and gender non-conforming New Yorker needs to know that the law is on their side — whether in their workplace, their housing, or in public spaces.”

The campaign comes after a particularly difficult spring for trans people across the United States. Since President Donald Trump took office for his second term last spring, his administration — in tandem with conservative state legislatures — have only ramped up their attacks on trans people, from passing anti-trans laws to threatening federal funding cuts to private institutions like hospitals that do not comply with Trump’s anti-trans directives. In addition to these legislative and policy-based attacks, the trans community is reeling from a recent upswing in violent killings this spring, as at least seven trans people were killed in March, April, and May alone, including Eryka Caldwell, a trans woman fatally stabbed in her Bushwick, Brooklyn apartment on May 17.

While New York City has some of the most robust protections for trans people in the country, trans New Yorkers have still felt the reverberations. In February 2026, hospital giant NYU Langone Health announced it would shutter its program providing gender-affirming care to minors, citing the “current regulatory environment.” The hospital system was also criminally subpoenaed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the North District of Texas, calling for the names of trans minors who had received gender-affirming care from NYU Langone between 2020 and 2026. Advocates and allies have urged Langone not to comply with the subpoena.

soxperry on June 1st, 2026 at 17:12 UTC »

The fact that CNN let several conservative talking heads use "transgender" as a slur to attack Talarico over the weekend shows why we need Pride Month.

TheOtherUprising on June 1st, 2026 at 16:40 UTC »

The people complaining about this will be the same people claiming he wants to institute Sharia Law.

StoppableHulk on June 1st, 2026 at 16:19 UTC »

Hey it turns out voting for good people does good things.

Remember that Mamdani won because people showed up and voted IN THE PRIMARY.

If the party had their way we would have had Cuomo again and he would have done all the usual dogshit things Cuomo does.

People came out and voted for Mamdani. And it made a huge difference. It offered one of the very few politicians people can actually believe in in this day and age.

Remember that. Remember that the party is only as good as your participation in it. That we can have better candidates... if we vote for them.

EDIT:

One thing I deeply despise is how so many people seem so eager to pretend as though the Democratic party, its leaders and power brokers never backed Cuomo for mayor. Now that Mamdani is super popular and killing it, they allllll want to pretend they were on the Mamdani train from the start, and it's complete bullshit.

The progressive wing of the party was the ONLY wing that was vocally anti-Cuomo.

The majority of the parties major figures, power brokers, and other heavies came out for Cuomo. Some may have done it "reluctantly", but the vast majority of the party lined up behind the rapey, disgraced Cuomo, until the point where Mamdani's popularity began to eclipse Cuomo and the writing was on the wall.

If not there are plenty of publications documenting it.

Clinton backed Cuomo

Bloomberg backed Cuomo

The head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party backed Cuomo

There are so many more examples.

The party are full of cowards. They do not police themselves and they gleefully line up behind useless, rapey, dogshit candidates, and this is a core cancer of the Democratic party.

ANd Mamdani is literally the blueprint for what we need to do about that.

Third parties are not the answer. Not voting is not the answer.

The answer is to swell the progressive arm of the Democratic party everywhere. Local, city, sttae, federal. Overwhelm them with numbers, vote out their rapey, ancient, useless cohort of fossils, and replace them with talented progressive candidates.