FDNY celebrates LGBTQ members, community leaders

NEW YORK — The FDNY is hosting the first ever FDNY Pride Month celebration on Monday evening at the New York City Fire Museum.

"I'm excited to announce this new tradition of honoring members of the LGBTQ community — including individuals who proudly serve within our department as well as community leaders and groups that have made a tremendous impact in our city," Daniel Nigro, Fire Commissioner said. "Every day, we are becoming a stronger organization through our improved diversity which includes the growing number of LGBTQ firefighters, EMT's, paramedics and civilians in the FDNY."

FDNY will honor Deputy Assistant Chief Lillian Bonsignore, Chief of EMS Training; the Marble Collegiate Church, a diverse, inclusive church in Manhattan; and Tanya Koifman, the clinical social worker at Harvey Milk High School in Manhattan.

In October, 2015, FDNY debuted its first "It Gets Better" video, in support of the It Gets Better Project. The Project's mission is to communicate to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth around the world that life gets better, and to create and inspire the changes needed to improve quality of life for them.

In the FDNY-produced video, twelve active FDNY firefighters, paramedics, and EMTs discuss the challenges they faced throughout their lives and the success they have found both as adults, and as FDNY members. Several participants in the video will be attending the Pride Celebration. 

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