Zohran Mamdani punctuated his historic New York mayoral election win by reaffirming his allyship with the trans community.
The 34-year-old socialist politician became the youngest New York mayor-elect in over a century after declaring victory in the early hours of Wednesday (5 November).
With over 50 per cent of the vote, Mamdani’s win follows a fierce mayoral race against Andrew Cuomo, the former Democrat turned independent candidate, who received 41 per cent the vote.
Cuomo’s campaign, which attempted to position Mamdani as inexperienced, failed to resonate with the city’s voters and was marred by sexual harassment allegations, as well as the use of AI-generated adverts which were criticised as ‘racist‘.
After declaring victory and becoming the first Muslim mayor-elect for New York City, Mamdani gave a speech in Brooklyn thanking supporters, his campaign team, and his “Mama and Baba.”
“Here we believe in standing up for those we love, whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many Black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall.
“No more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election,” he continued.
Mamdani’s staunch LGBTQ+ allyship is not just well-documented, but was a core part of his mayoral campaign.
The mayor-elect has pledged to protect LGBTQ+ New Yorkers with a laundry list of policies, including the expansion and protection of gender-affirming care, establishing the city as a refuge for the community, and vowing to create an office of LGBTQIA+ affairs.
He also acknowledged how economic issues, such as cost of living increases, disproprtionatelly affect LGBTQ+ people, noting that they have “higher rates of unemployment and homelessness than the rest of the city.”
Days before the election, Mamdani went on a late-night tour across NYC’s queer bars, making appearances at the Caribbean Social Club, Damballa, Mood Ring, 100 Sutton, Papi Juice, and more.
Speaking to a rapturous crowd during his stop at one of the bars over the weekend, Mamdani yelled: “Are we ready to win a city we can afford? Are we ready to make history? Let’s go out there and do it. Thank you, my friends.”
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