By Ireland Owens
Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is shelling out $15 million in an effort to broaden transgender services for city residents, Them first reported Friday.
The Mamdani administration’s new effort will include three initiatives designed to bolster access to “gender-affirming” care in New York City: a “direct” transgender service access fund, a call and text line to aid transitioners and additional funds for LGBTQ “medical care,” according to online LGBTQ magazine Them. (RELATED: Zohran Mamdani Asked About Wife Apparently Liking Social Media Posts That Celebrate Oct. 7 Attack)
Mamdani’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
“Every New Yorker should have the freedom to live as themselves and access the healthcare they need,” Mamdani told Them. “As the federal government attacks transgender people and attempts to intimidate patients, families and providers, New York City is stepping up.”
“We will protect care, support the providers delivering it and make clear that trans New Yorkers belong in this city. Healthcare is a human right, and we will do everything in our power to defend it,” he added.
The move represents “a proactive $15 million investment at a time of growing uncertainty and escalating attacks from the federal government,” according to a news release from the mayor’s office.
“This is the best news that we’ve heard all Pride Month,” New York City Council Member Justin E. Sanchez, Co-Chair of the Council’s LGBTQIA+ Caucus, told Them. “As fun the parades, balls, and celebrations have been, the work we do and the progress we continue to make in the face of adversity is what Pride is all about. I’d like to thank Mayor Zohran Mamdani for his understanding of the challenges that transgender people face every day, working with our Caucus, and delivering on his promise to protect them.”
The announcement comes amid the Trump administration’s ongoing defunding of gender ideology nationwide.
Sixty percent of transgender adults in the U.S. notably said they had poor mental health during at least one day over the period of a month compared with 37% of cisgender adults, according to an August 2021 Center for American Progress fact sheet citing 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data.
New York City recently opposed federal grand jury subpoenas seeking the medical records of transgender patients earlier in June, and a federal judge later issued an injunction halting the Justice Department from obtaining those records, Fox News reported on Friday.
In March, Mamdani issued an executive order that created a new “Mayor’s Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs” to “oversee and coordinate implementation of initiatives across city agencies that serve LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers.”
“Gender affirming” care has serious consequences. 95% of young transgender people on testosterone develop pelvic floor dysfunction; most have bowel issues and sexual dysfunction. As the Telegraph reported, “Around 87 per cent…had urinary symptoms such as incontinence, frequent toilet visits and bed-wetting, while 74 per cent had bowel issues including constipation or being unable to hold stools or wind in. Some 53 per cent suffered from sexual dysfunction…Almost half had an ‘orgasm disorder’, while a quarter suffered from pain during sexual intercourse.”
Transgender treatments can lead to a lifetime of pain, discomfort, and medications. As Britain’s National Health Service explains, hormones “need to be taken for the rest of your life, even if you have gender surgery.” An FDA official who supported giving minors puberty blockers conceded that they actually increase suicidality. Indeed, the “FDA knew ‘gender affirming’ puberty blockers increase ‘suicidality’ in 2017,” reported Just the News.
Even the transgender lawyer who challenged Tennessee’s restrictions on transgender treatments for kids admitted to the Supreme Court that “completed suicide is thankfully and admittedly rare” among transgender youth, even those not given gender-affirming treatment, and that “there is no evidence…that this [transgender-affirming] treatment reduces completed suicide.” The ACLU’s Chase Strangio admitted that to the Supreme Court.
Yet doctors who did sex changes often falsely told parents that they needed to give their kids a sex change to keep them from committing suicide, even though this isn’t true. One of America’s most prominent gender doctors, “Dr. Olson-Kennedy disclosed to how she speaks with parents of gender dysphoric patients: ‘We often ask parents, “Would you rather have a dead son than a live daughter?’”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 29: New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani attends the 2025 New York City Pride March on June 29, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)
