NYC budget includes funding for trans health care and services

New York City is allocating nearly $14 million toward gender-affirming care and other critical housing and employment resources for its LGBTQ community as part of the newly approved $115.9 billion city budget.

According to councilmembers and advocates, the funding marks the city’s largest-ever budget investment specifically targeted toward transgender and gender nonconforming New Yorkers.

“It's historic," said Kei Williams, who leads the NEW Pride Agenda, which advocates for LGBTQ rights across New York state. "New York City just made a nation-leading, life-saving investment that no other city, no other state, has done at a moment where transgender people are directly under attack."

The new funds reflect city lawmakers' ongoing efforts to insulate LGBTQ New Yorkers from federal rollbacks on protections and services, including access to gender-affirming care. Many of those rollbacks, initiated under the Trump administration, are now tied up in legal challenges. In the meantime, City Council leaders said they’ve focused on strengthening local laws and funding to protect at-risk residents.

That includes months of budget advocacy from the Council’s LGBTQIA+ Caucus and allied groups during negotiations with the Adams administration. On Monday, the Council announced it had unanimously approved the city’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget, which includes $13.725 million specifically allocated to LGBTQ-focused programs and services.

One councilmember said it came despite pushback from Mayor Eric Adams.

Councilmember Tiffany Cabán from Queens, who co-chairs the LGBTQIA+ Caucus, claimed that one of the biggest obstacles to securing the funding was the mayor himself.

“The mayor did not want to fund these initiatives. He fought against the queer and trans communities, our health care, our support systems, our safety and our housing,” Cabán said in a statement to Gothamist on Tuesday. “But the Council and trans and queer advocates fought hard and won lifesaving funding.”

Kayla Mamelak Altus, a spokesperson for Adams, disputed Cabán’s claims.

“Tiffany Cabán’s willingness to spread such a hateful lie is deeply disturbing and she should be ashamed,” she said in a statement. “Mayor Adams has been a lifelong ally to the LGBTQ+ community — including voting for marriage equality in the state senate when many in his party wouldn’t and signing an Executive Order as mayor protecting those seeking gender affirming healthcare.”

She added that Adams was proud to include LGBTQ+ funding in what he has called the city’s "Best Budget Ever," and noted that he celebrated the investment during last week’s handshake press conference with the City Council — an event she said Cabán did not attend.

In his own statement Monday, celebrating the budget’s unanimous passage, Adams praised the inclusion of funding for “LGBTQ+ Emergency Support,” describing the overall deal as one that “invests in the public-safety, affordability, and quality-of-life initiatives New Yorkers deeply care about.”

Despite tensions over funding negotiations, Adams has publicly voiced support for LGBTQ New Yorkers. Following last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision to allow a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for minors to stand, Adams issued a statement welcoming those seeking such care to New York City.

Cabán credited the NYC Trans and Queer Provider Advocacy Coalition for helping lead the push. This group, and others, organized emergency press conferences, held meetings with councilmembers and sent nearly 20,000 advocacy emails during the budget process, she said.

She also noted that $11.725 million of the funding is entirely new, representing the most the city has ever allocated specifically for transgender and gender nonconforming New Yorkers.

The FY2026 budget includes:

• $3.5 million will go toward expanding gender-affirming care for transgender, gender nonconforming, nonbinary, and intersex youth, including primary care, surgeries and mental health services.
• $5 million will support stable housing for LGBTQ youth and young adults, through funding for nonprofits that specialize in LGBTQ-specific services and shelters.
• $6.45 million has been allocated to the Trans Equity Initiative, which funds programs related to education, workforce development, legal assistance and health care navigation for trans and gender nonconforming New Yorkers. That’s nearly double the $3.225 million allocated to the initiative in previous budgets.

According to Cabán’s office, the first two allocations — $3.5 million for gender-affirming care and $5 million for youth housing services — are entirely new this year.

City Council spokesperson Julia Agos said in a statement that the budget advances the Council’s goal to “protect New Yorkers targeted by the Trump administration’s harmful actions.”

“While Trump and his allies in Congress are attacking hardworking Americans and civil rights, the Council is leading by example to ensure the city fulfills its commitment to continue supporting all New Yorkers,” she said.

The Council also passed a resolution, sponsored by Cabán, urging the state Legislature to provide additional funding to hospitals and healthcare providers offering gender-affirming care across the city.