Mayor Eric Adams on Friday unveiled a plan to invest close to $6.7 million in services to support the city’s LGBTQ communities — and continued to defend the city’s funding of drag queen story hours in schools against a Republican City Council member’s attacks, calling the events an important means of combating anti-LGBTQ sentiment. 

At a press conference Friday morning, Adams announced funding that will go toward a host of new and existing initiatives, including one that finances legal services for LGBTQ New Yorkers dealing with discrimination and one that supports community-based transgender, gender non-conforming and non-binary-led nonprofits. 

The mayor also continued to voice his support for the city Department of Education’s partnership with Drag Queen Story Hour NYC. 

Queens Councilmember Vickie Paladino earlier this week tweeted that the story hours amounted to “child grooming and sexualization” — a remark her fellow City Council members quickly condemned as anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.  

Asked on Friday to explain why he felt the story hours were important, Adams said students would get “the same thing [out of the story hours] they get out of dealing with the history and dealing with the culture of any group.”

“What we’re saying to our young people: We don’t want you just to be academically smart. We want you to be emotionally intelligent and appreciate the diversity,” he said. “If we want to decrease hate crimes in our city, anti-Semitism, AAPI, attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, this is how we do it. Education.” 

“And so to say that, well, what does one get out of it? One gets out of it that you should not attack people based on who they are, and so I support every form of education that we continue to develop our children,” he added. “That’s why adults are so broken right now, is because we believe we have to demonize people and demonize groups. We need to stop that.”

Paladino’s comments, Adams said, “were inappropriate.”

“And I think we should lean into not only drowning out comments like that, but also, how do we lean into the continuation of education? It’s about education,” he said. “It’s about time for us to openly educate people to appreciate the diversity that we have.” 

With Friday’s remarks, the mayor doubled down on a statement he released on Thursday responding to Paladino’s tweets.

“At a time when our LGBTQ+ communities are under increased attack across this country, we must use our education system to educate,” he said in the statement. “Drag storytellers, and the libraries and schools that support them, are advancing a love of diversity, personal expression, and literacy that is core to what our city embraces.” 

Paladino defended her comments during an appearance Friday afternoon on former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s radio show.

“It doesn’t belong in our classrooms, Rudy,” she said.

The Republican sought to turn the tables and blame New York Democrats for spending their time on Drag Queen Story Hour instead of focusing on passing legislation that would bring the city’s economy back, despite the fact Paladino initially raised the issue.

“The bottom line of this, Rudy, is why don’t they concentrate on what's actually going on in the city,” Paladino said. “They are spending so much time on Vickie Paladino and her comment on Drag Queen Story Hour. They made me a villain of sorts.”

Paladino claimed that people from the gay community have been calling her office in support of her comments.

“When you got the backup of that, then the radical left City Council, not everybody’s off the cliff. But there’s enough of them stomping their feet, making enough noise that they wanna crucify Vickie Paladino,” she added.

Paladino’s criticism came in response to a New York Post article that reported the city had spent over $200,000 on performances by the group Drag Queen Story Hour NYC. The nonprofit puts on “fabulous education experiences for children and teens” in libraries, schools, museums, and other community spaces, according to its website. These events include storytelling programs and book discussions in English, Spanish, and Cantonese.

Adams on Friday also continued to defend himself against advocates who decried his appointments of three officials who had made anti-gay remarks in the past, including former Bronx City Council Member Fernando Cabrera. 

Earlier this month, several LGBTQ political groups boycotted a Pride Month event Adams hosted at Gracie Mansion, choosing instead to organize a counter-event at The Stonewall Inn. 

“Some of the same folks that have dismissed my history in this movement, now stand outside and demonize me, demonize me,” Adams said. “Forget about my push to get gender in the state Senate, forget about my push to get marriage passed, forget about the millions I’ve put into Brooklyn Pride, Stonewall and other organizations.”