Politics

Mayor Wu creates Boston Office of LGBTQ+ advancement, appoints first director

Quincey Roberts Sr. will ensure City Hall connects with and serves the needs of the LGBTQ+ community across all Boston neighborhoods.

Quincy Roberts Sr. Office of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu

By Susannah Sudborough

2 minutes to read

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced the creation of a new city office called the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Advancement and the appointment of its first executive director Wednesday during the city’s Pride Month kick-off event.

According to a statement, the office will empower, protect, and advance the rights and dignity of Boston’s LGBTQ+ residents by developing policies, community-oriented programming, and providing resources for the city’s LGBTQ+ community. 

Wu appointed Quincy Roberts Sr., an LGBTQ+ rights activist and former LGBTQ+ community liaison in the Office of Neighborhood Services (ONS), to the role of executive director.

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In the news release, the mayor’s office said his role will be to ensure City Hall connects with and serves the needs of the LGBTQ+ community across all Boston neighborhoods.

“Quincey’s passion for advocacy, equity, and building community will help Boston advance and protect the rights of LGBTQ+ Bostonians,” Wu said in the news release.

The new office will reside within the Equity and Inclusion Cabinet, which is led by Chief Mariangely Solis Cervera.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with Quincey and I have witnessed his love and respect for our LGBTQ+ community,” Solis Cervera said in the statement.

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“This is a historic moment for us. He understands the beautiful complexities of our intersectional identities and knows that we have a lot of work to do to build a city for everyone.”

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As the former LGBTQ+ community liaison in neighborhood services, the release said, Roberts worked to encourage the community’s participation in local government and address their needs by connecting them with city services.

Roberts has also served as the education and outreach manager for the Boston Human Rights Commission, and in 2009, Roberts and his partner Corey Yarbrough co-founded the Hispanic Black Gay Coalition, according to the statement.

At the coalition, the release said, Roberts and Yarborough created leadership development programs, support groups, and its annual Youth Empowerment Conference, which is the largest gathering of LGBTQ+ youths of color in New England.

Roberts also worked with the Union United Methodist Church in Boston and Justice Resource Institute to establish The Youth Lounge — a youth drop-in space that offered after-school programs for LGBTQ+ youths of color.

Roberts’s work with the church earned him a seat on the church’s Board of Trustees in 2013, the release said, making him the youngest and first openly gay trustee of the congregation.

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Roberts currently lives in Dorchester with Yarbrough, his spouse of five years, the release said. The two have a growing family, and are co-parenting their son Quincey Roberts Jr. with a long-time friend.

“I am honored to lead the newly-formed Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Advancement,” Roberts said in the news release.

“Mayor Wu and her administration’s work has been bold, purposeful, and historic, and I am excited to be a part of that. We have been waiting for decades for a space to call our own in city government, and I look forward to advancing this critical work!”

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