Dear Mayor Bill de Blasio,

You have advocated for transgender New Yorkers as a key tenet of your mayoral platform. Now we ask you to put your words into action, and protect us from your very own employees.

Transgender New Yorkers face constant abuse and discrimination, and those in positions of governmental authority and public trust should be their protectors and advocates, not one more abuser. Right now, there is insufficient regulatory control for government employees when they have harmed a transgender person during the performance of their job duties.

We are writing this petition on behalf of Aeliana Boyer, a transgender New Yorker who is currently embroiled in lawsuits against the FDNY and Fedcap. In 2016, Aeliana was run-over by an FDNY ambulance that fled the scene. She was insulted and demeaned at the site of the accident by emergency responders, and then subsequently denied any form of accountability by the FDNY for causing this accident through reckless driving. She was then assaulted in the women’s bathroom at the HRA/ Fedcap disability office (by an employee of the office) while attempting to receive disability benefits for injuries caused by the FDNY. HRA has also neglected to assume any responsibility for the assault by their employee, and continued to cause trauma and insult to Aeliana, while overseeing her access to care.

Aeliana’s story is far too common, and there is little accountability to keep government workers from continuing abusive and discriminatory behaviors while on the government’s paycheck.

We ask that you speak out on behalf of Aeliana Boyer in her cases against the FDNY and Fedcap, and put pressure on the FDNY & Fedcap to expediently resolve her cases. And we ask that you encourage the driver who hit her to come forward.

We ask that you implement stronger regulatory controls and accountability training for government workers, promoting the safety of transgender New Yorkers who experience discrimination and abuse by government employees in the performance of their job. We ask that transphobia be treated as a hate crime, and that the city of New York work with transgender New Yorkers to create a set of guidelines for city workers on these issues.