Politics
Gender Equity Panel Members Tell Adams to Stand Up to Trump or Quit
Sixteen members of New York’s Gender Equity Commission called Mayor Eric Adams’s response to moves against women, immigrants and transgender people “weak and inadequate.”
A majority of New York City’s Commission on Gender Equity called on Friday for Mayor Eric Adams to resign if he does not lay out a strategy for defending transgender New Yorkers, women and immigrants against the Trump administration’s threats to those groups’ rights.
Sixteen commissioners appointed by Mr. Adams said in a letter that they had “lost confidence” that he would “stand up and defend our city’s sanctuary policies when we know that women and families will bear the brunt of the chaos of ICE terrorizing immigrant communities.”
Mr. Adams, the commissioners continued, “has provided a weak and inadequate response to directives of the Trump administration to peel back rights and protections for trans New Yorkers.”
The letter’s signers demanded that the mayor detail, within a week, his plans for protecting the rights of transgender and nonbinary residents to receive gender affirming care; protecting immigrants and enforcing the city’s sanctuary laws; and providing access to reproductive health services and fighting cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs.
“Without this assurance to fulfill his promise and electoral obligation to New Yorkers, as well as the mandate of his Commission on Gender Equity, Mayor Adams must resign,” the letter said.
The commission currently lists 28 members on its website. A spokeswoman for those who signed the letter said they would most likely resign if their demands were not met.
