Good morning.

Welcome to today's New York City Council hearing from the Committee on Veteran Affairs.

At this time, I'd like to remind everyone to police on their electronic devices.

And no point is anyone to approach the dais.

If you would like to sign up for public testimony and have not done so already, feel free to sign a slip located outside in the hallway with the Sergeant Arms.

Chair, we're ready to begin.

Good morning.

I am Councilman Frank Morano.

I have the uh pleasure and honor of chairing the Veterans Committee of the New York City Council.

I want to thank everybody who's joining us here in person.

I want to thank everybody who's watching via Zoom.

I want to thank everybody that's watching on cable television when there's uh nothing else on.

Uh but I really want to thank uh everybody for tuning in, uh however they're tuning in for such an important topic.

And today, our oversight hearing is on programs and services for LGBTQ plus veterans.

Um, when I first took over this committee, I mentioned that to me, veterans issues were uh the one issue that should be and ideally would be totally nonpartisan.

Conservatives love talking about veterans' issues because it deals with patriotism, defending the country, all sorts of things that traditionally conservatives are all about.

A lot of progressives love focusing on veterans issues because it gives them an opportunity to talk about health care and housing and all sorts of things that progressives are uh all about on a regular basis.

And to me, the thing that I love most about this committee is we have members on both sides of the political spectrum, and we are all rowing in the same direction to deliver for New Yorkers and especially for the veterans that have served us.

Nowhere is that more noticeable than in terms of the issues that are uniquely facing LGBT plus veterans.

Uh as our committee has researched, and as we'll get into uh LGBT veterans have a higher instance of PTSD, LGBT veterans have higher incidence of being victimized by sexual assault, and a number of other things that even after the ending of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, continue to permeate throughout the veterans' community.

And this committee, which has some very dedicated council members on it, is not going to just sit by and accept that as the new status quo.

So what I'm hoping we can get at in today's hearing is a playbook.

Is a playbook for legislative action, a playbook for uh uh public awareness, and a way that we can fix what is a very real problem.

I do want to mention uh two things that are particularly important given the circumstances and given our history.

First, I want to give a big congratulations to retired Sergeant First Class Dominic Pepe from Woodhaven for his induction into the New York State Veterans Hall of Fame.

Uh not long ago, I did not even know there was a New York State Veterans Hall of Fame.

And uh to me, uh Dominic Pepe is exactly the type of person that this hearing is focused on today, and uh I'm glad to see that he's been recognized on a statewide basis.

I also want to take a moment to speak about the legacy of a Staten Islander who lives in my district, and there's a street named for him, six minutes from my office and 10 minutes from where I grew up, and that is James Jimmy Zappalordi, a gay Vietnam War veteran who was murdered because of his sexual orientation.

His murder was the first officially designated hate crime in the borough of Staten Island, and his plight inspired activism that led to the passage of the New York State Hate Crimes Act of the year 2000, which was signed by Governor Pataki, which allowed harsher penalties for crimes motivated by bias against race, religion, sexual orientation, et cetera.

And Zappalordi's murder did more than just cause grief.

His legacy united communities.

It sparked a level of activism that really hadn't been seen before.

Certainly in the Staten Island South Shore community, certainly in the LGBT community, and certainly in the military veteran community.

There was the Zapalordi Society, which was founded in 1992, and the Pride Center of Staten Island, which was founded in 2013, and all about providing lasting support and services to Staten Island's LGBTQ community.

Let me say a word or two and an observation or two about our LGBTQ plus veterans.

Between 1980 and 1993, over 19,000 LGBTQ plus service members were discharged.

Many with other than honorable statuses and under don't ask, don't tell, more than 13,000 were denied benefits, recognition, and dignity.

And you think about that.

These people are just in as much in need of health care, of housing, and to think that they were denied anything that should be rightly given to a veteran who has risked their lives in the service of our country.

It's abominable.

And these policies forced veterans to lose health care, education, and retirement benefits while at the same time enduring discrimination, harassment, and trauma in service to their country.

Even today, inequities persist with about a thousand transgender service members discharged after the 2025 ban on their service, 2025.

As a result of these policies, as well as wider discrimination and violence against LGBTQ plus individuals, LGBTQ plus veterans face higher rates of mental health challenges, suicide, PTSD, and chronic illness.

They're also significantly more likely to experience military sexual trauma and assault, further compounding a lot of these health issues.

At the same time, we have a real problem with data.

There are major gaps in the data.

Nearly 89% of VA records lack gender identity information, making LGBTQ plus veterans largely invisible in official counts.

National estimates suggest there are around 1 million LGBTQ plus veterans, while in New York State there may be around 70,000, most of them believed to be concentrated in New York City, although, as I indicated, because of the lack of data, we don't know exactly for sure.

Together, these realities underscore the importance of ensuring LGBTQ plus veterans are seen, recognized for their service to the country, supported, and connected to comprehensive affirming health care and services that they've earned.

In addition to our oversight topic today, we're going to be hearing uh two very important pieces of legislation.

We're going to be hearing intro number 914, which is sponsored by me, which is a great bill, as you might expect, which would require a study and recommendations on the feasibility and implementing a pilot program to provide uh reconsolidation of traumatic memories therapy for veterans.

Let me say a word on this bill.

Um, unlike any other bill that I've introduced, this didn't come from an idea that I had or that a constituent brought to me or that I researched.

Uh, this bill was introduced by the prior chair of the Veterans Committee, uh Bob Holden, and even though it had been passed by the Veterans Committee in the last city council, it never got to be voted on by the council as a whole.

So what I'm hoping to get at today is exactly what this particular type of therapy would do.

I know it's been controversial in some quarters, and what New York City could do to explore this as a viable therapy for dealing with PTSD.

If this bill needs to be amended to better reflect the realities of how New York City would handle this, I'm all about amending it.

Uh, even though this is my bill, this is not a bill that uh that I have necessarily a rooting interest seeing in its current form.

I am all about changing it uh or adapting it or expanding it based on uh the testimony we're gonna hear from the administration and hopefully the public.

The other legislation we're hearing today is uh another very important piece of legislation introduced by um which is uh intro number 928, sponsored by minority leader David Carr, which would amend the administrative code of the City of New York in relation to establishing an LGBTQ liaison within the Department of Veteran Services.