Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced the launch of a new LGBTQ+ Advancement office Wednesday morning.
"This is a city for everyone," Wu said. "This is a city where we have the leadership in place across the administration, across the City Council, across the Legislature and all throughout our community to ensure we see each other with love, with respect, with trust and with possibility. I am so excited."
The mayor's new LGBTQ+ Advancement office will be tasked with empowering, protecting and promoting the rights, dignity and advancement of LGBTQ+ residents. It will also be responsible for developing policy and programming and providing resources for the city's LGBTQ+ community.
Previously, this work had been led by various LGBTQ+ liaisons who served in the Office of Neighborhood Services.
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"City Hall can do much more to ensure that we are truly connecting with and serving LGBTQ+ residents across all of our neighborhoods,” Wu said. “This new office will ensure that our policies and programs are advancing and protecting the rights and dignity of Boston’s LGBTQ+ residents and centering the lived experiences of queer, trans BIPOC residents in the City’s work to make Boston a place for everyone.”
Wu also announced that the city will be hiring an executive director for the new Office of LGBTQ+ Advancement "to help create a more affirming and welcoming city."
“As a queer first generation Latina, I’m honored to stand on the shoulders of and next to people who have given so much and continue to give to the LGBTQ+ community,” said Mariangely Solis Cervera, Boston's chief of equity and inclusion. “I look forward to working in partnership with the Executive Director and Mayor Wu to eliminate barriers to access, amplify the work of community leaders, and create new opportunities for the LGBTQ+ family.”
