A Q&A with New York City first lady Chirlane McCray

As first lady of New York City, Chirlane McCray has pushed for better access to mental health services and blogged frequently as FLONYC. She talked with City & State’s Jeff Coltin about her signature issue and impressing her son, Dante. The following is an edited transcript.

C&S: You marched for the first time in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade after the organizers agreed to let LGBT groups march under their own banners. Were you happy to finally take part?

CM: Absolutely! There are so many people out there. I’d have to think this is record turnout. Maybe because of what this parade means this year to so many people. And perhaps the good weather, too (laughs).

C&S: You played a huge role in Thrive NYC, the plan to make a more effective mental health system in the city. Why did you choose to make that your signature issue?

CM: I chose to focus on mental health because it’s been something that has kind of troubled me all my life. You’ve probably heard me talk about my parents suffering from depression. And I’ve also mentioned that I had a friend in high school who took her own life. I’ve had many deeply troubling episodes in my life which involved people who suffered from mental illness. And then when our daughter came to us and told us that she was suffering from anxiety and depression and addiction I just – that really gave me a deeper understanding of, first of all, how common it was. And how much we needed to do to help families throughout our city who are suffering.

C&S: And it can be so hard to talk about.

CM: It is really tough. We’re going to make it easier for people to navigate services come fall. We are launching NYC Support. It’s going to be one phone number, one website, one place people can text to actually get an appointment with someone who takes their insurance, has a place to go to in their location. And we’re going to make sure people actually get to that first appointment, too. Because sometimes it’s so hard, if someone is not well, to actually make the call and get to the appointment. I think that will go a long way to helping New Yorkers get the kind of services they need where they live, where they work, where they go to school. It’s a start, but it’s something that’s desperately needed.

C&S: March is Women’s History Month, but on a recent podcast our columnist Alexis Grenell criticized the concept, saying we should just integrate women’s history with all history. What do you think about Women’s History Month? Is it important?

CM: I think it’s wonderful to have a women’s history month! I think she’s exactly right, of course. Women should be so fully integrated into our society that there be no need to have a special month to point out that we’ve made these contributions to history and the world. It would be great if we arrived at that point, but here we are. I think we’re working towards that day. I’m happy to say that nearly 60 percent of this administration’s senior leadership positions are women of all ethnicities. We’ve got two deputy mayors out of four that are female. And we’ve got at least a couple dozen commissioners and directors – and again, women of all ethnicities. And we are always recruiting. Because women are more than half the population, and when we have a seat at the table, we bring a unique perspective, an important perspective. We bring a perspective of more than half the population! (Laughs) So it’s really important that we’re at the table.

C&S: So feminism, intersectionality – it seems like the public terms of the discussion have changed so much over the past 20, 30 years. Do you have a constant conversation, dinner table conversation with Mayor de Blasio every night to keep him and yourself up to date on feminist rhetoric and discussion?

CM: Well Bill and I are always talking, always talking. I was an early member of the Combahee River Collective, which is actually where that term, from my understanding, came from. I learned about that word, intersectionality, which we did not use, from Dante, actually! (laughs) He came to me one day and said, “Mom, you were in Combahee?” And he was very impressed! I said, why, what’s going on? He explained to me they were talking about intersectionality and I said, “yeah, we did that!” (laughs)

First of all, black, low-income, gay, I mean living in the world that I was living in, it was very natural to talk about our day-to-day experiences. And you look at the materials that were coming out at the time, especially. I mean they talked about women, but it was always about white women. They talked about men, but it was always within the framework of the 60s and 70s, it was black men. And black women and black gay women were invisible. So it was very necessary for us to come together and talk about our perspectives on life, which was very different from the public conversation that was going on at that time. And obviously, things have not changed that much, because the conversation continues. And yes, Bill and I, Chiara does it. We’re always talking about this stuff. Our kids are very politically savvy, they’re very social justice-oriented, and we learn from them just as much as they learn from us. 

C&S: You’ve been outspoken against Donald Trump. Are you worried about him changing the terms of the election? Moving from political discussion to what seems like a more base argument?

CM: I’m just deeply worried about him, period. I’m worried that he has such a following. I don’t like that there’s been no serious discussion of the policy issues. And I’m just hoping that people wake up and see that the message that he’s pushing is not going to take this country in a positive direction. His xenophobia, his bullying, it’s just not going to take us anywhere good.

C&S: You made your own Oscar picks, highlighting actors of color. What can New York City do to help bring more diversity into film and TV?

CM: We’re working very hard to create our own pipeline to create jobs for folks – for women of all ethnicities, minority populations. We see that what’s happening with the Oscars is a symptom of a larger problem, of representation at all levels of the entertainment industry, not just at the Academy. So we have a lot of work to do. We’re working very hard to connect more youths to jobs, internships and mentors and to our New York City Center for Youth Employment. We’re working very closely with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment to build stronger pipelines to make sure that we get talented women, people of all colors jobs at all levels of the industry. Writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, electricians, designers – there’s just so many jobs. Even musicians! Because of the unions, because of the way things have been structured, a lot of people have been shut out of opportunities to get those jobs. It’s a huge industry. It employs at least 130,000 New Yorkers, and we depend on them, and they can play such a big, powerful role in pushing our city forward. So we want to work with them.