Whereas many within the queer neighborhood watch shocked in disbelief as anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and laws designed to dismantle transgender healthcare sweeps throughout America, a gay councilmember within the coronary heart of queer New York Metropolis is refusing to face nonetheless.
Erik Bottcher, representing the historic neighborhoods the place Stonewall’s legacy lives on, isn’t simply posting rainbow flags or providing sympathetic tweets (the queer equal of ‘ideas and prayers’)—he’s wielding legislative energy.
As the present administration actively labored in its first weeks to roll again transgender rights by government orders, Bottcher and his allies on the town’s LGBTQIA+ Caucus had been busy on the counteroffensive, making a daring legislative package deal designed to safeguard transgender, gender non-conforming, nonbinary, and intersex (TGNCNBI) New Yorkers.
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“We stand in complete solidarity with our transgender siblings,” Bottcher stated in a press release, saying that whereas some are “attempting to erase the very existence of trans individuals, we’re advocating for insurance policies that vastly develop protections for trans New Yorkers.”
The legislative package deal contains a number of important payments, together with Int. 1200, which might create a complete “know your rights” marketing campaign to coach TGNCNBI people about protections in opposition to discrimination, entry to gender-affirming care, authorized title and gender marker modifications, and neighborhood sources. Bottcher has additionally co-sponsored Int. 1203, which might develop assist methods for younger TGNCNBI migrants underneath age 25 who’re new to the town.
For Bottcher, his work on behalf of the weak within the queer neighborhood is deeply private. Rising up in a small Adirondack Mountain city in upstate New York as the one queer individual he knew led to overwhelming struggles with melancholy and self-acceptance. At simply 15, after a number of makes an attempt to take his personal life, he was admitted to a psychological well being facility in Saratoga Springs, NY. After graduating from highschool, he penned an open letter to his faculty board concerning the bullying he endured, which prompted the district so as to add “sexual orientation” to its non-discrimination coverage.
Bottcher graduated from George Washington College, then made his approach to Manhattan, like so many different queer individuals trying to find neighborhood. He hustled his approach by numerous jobs earlier than touchdown a place in authorities. In 2009, he turned the LGBT and HIV/AIDS liaison for the New York Metropolis Council, stepping up throughout a important time. His work wasn’t simply coverage—it was private. He tackled hate crimes and pushed again in opposition to bullying in faculties.
His political profession continued as LGBTQ+ liaison within the governor’s workplace, the place he labored for the profitable passage of marriage equality in New York in 2011. In 2015, he turned chief of workers to homosexual Councilmember Corey Johnson, who later turned Metropolis Council Speaker. Bottcher was elected to succeed the term-limited Johnson in 2021 as consultant for Metropolis Council District 3, which incorporates the West Village, Chelsea, and Hell’s Kitchen, areas with wealthy LGBTQ+ historical past and vibrant communities. He’s at present working for a second and last four-year time period.
The present legislative effort to safeguard TGNCNBI rights demonstrates Bottcher’s continued dedication to those ideas. “On the coronary heart of the LGBTQIA+ rights motion, New York Metropolis should be a beacon of assist and love for our total neighborhood,” he emphasizes. “An assault on one a part of our neighborhood is an assault on all of us. The LGBTQIA+ Caucus will defend the rights of our neighborhood in any respect prices.”
As anti-LGBTQ+ legislators proceed to assault trans rights across the nation—from banning healthcare to rolling again rights in faculties—Bottcher and his colleagues in New York’s Metropolis Council aren’t simply resisting, they’re constructing safeguards to make sure that the town will proceed to be a spot the place queer youth can develop up secure and thrive.
Bottcher will get it as a result of he’s lived it. From a scared, closeted child to a fierce LGBTQ+ champion, his journey proves what occurs when the neighborhood takes energy.
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