City Hall declined to comment on Cabrera taking the helm of the mental health office and whether the mayor agrees with Cabrera’s position on same-sex marriage. The former Council member did not return multiple requests for comment.
His potential appointment has drawn concerns.
“This is the most outrageously homophobic appointment I’ve ever witnessed in my entire history in the movement,” said Allen Roskoff, a longtime gay rights activist and president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club. “To put a vile, homophobic bigot in charge of mental health, it insults every member of the LGBTQ community. It would be similar to appointing David Duke to head the B’nai B’rith,” he said of the American neo-Nazi and international Jewish service group.
Young people who identify as part of the LGBTQ community are 120 percent more likely to experience homelessness and seek mental health services from the city.
Thrive became a political issue for the de Blasio administration following reports that the $1 billion program had few metrics to track outcomes and spending.
Following public pushback, McCray and Herman pivoted Thrive to focus on people with serious mental illness and ways the NYPD could connect people living on the streets to care. Before leaving office, de Blasio codified the Office of Community Mental Health into the City Charter so that it remains a permanent part of city government.
Gary Belkin, who designed the original Thrive program and declined to weigh in on Cabrera’s anticipated appointment, said the mental health effort should “get back to its original intention of getting into communities to do mental health where they live.”
“This is a mayor who’s talked eloquently about the needs of government to step in and go upstream,” he said. “I hope we’re not sliding downstream only for a mental health approach.”
Immediately after TheTeCHyWorLD broke the news of the expected appointment, LGBTQ groups unilaterally condemned Adams for considering Cabrera. Groups like Equality New York sent around a petition fighting the potential appointment, and openly gay politicians like state Sen. Brad Hoylman and former Council Speaker Christine Quinn spoke out against Cabrera.
“As an LGBTQIA elected official, I’d be outraged if the Mayor of New York City — the world capital of tolerance and multiculturalism — appointed an avowed homophobe to any position in city government,” Hoylman tweeted Thursday evening.
Within hours, City Hall confirmed Cabrera would not take the helm of the mental health office.
Joe Anuta contributed to this report.