Katz, Dromm Honor LGBT Leaders at Queens Borough Hall Pride Celebration

Kew Gardens, NY, June 29, 2016 — Queens Borough President Melinda Katz (D-Queens) and NYC Council Member Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights, Elmhurst) honored Caribbean Equality Project Executive Director Mohamed Q. Amin and NYC Public School Teacher Justin Monaco at the 2016 LGBT Pride Celebration at Queens Borough Hall.  At the event, Queens Borough President Katz, Council Member Dromm and other elected officials highlighted the many contributions Amin and Monaco–both of whom are openly gay–have made to the LGBT rights movement in the Borough of Queens.

“Mohamed Amin and Justin Monaco have done much to advance the LGBT rights movement in their own unique and special ways,” said Council Member Dromm, the first openly-gay elected official in the Borough of Queens. “I was thrilled to join Queens Borough President Katz and community leaders in honoring their inspiring work and celebrating LGBT Pride with them.”

About the honorees:

Mohamed Q. Amin is the founder and Executive Director of the Caribbean Equality Project (CEP), a non-profit Caribbean-oriented LGBTQ organization based in Queens, NY. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Queens College and worked for 11 years in management, finance, and the retail banking industry, where his responsibilities included the management of customer relations, office operations, and an array of financial services. Amin also graduated from the New York City Anti-Violence Project’s Community Leadership Institute and Speaker’s Bureau: Intensive Organizing Training. He participated on various panel discussions and conducted educational presentations at schools and community-based organizations aimed at breaking the silence on issues important to immigrant Caribbean LGBTQ people of color. With CEP, he applies his professional expertise as well as his drive for equality, inclusion and respect for the Caribbean LGBTQ community. He is the first Indo-Caribbean LGBTQ advocate to be featured on the International TV show, “Let’s Talk with Lakshmee” and BRIC TV’s “BK Live”. With his community organizing, activism and tireless advocacy for human rights and gender equality, he was profiled in The Village Voice, Voices of NY, Caribbean Life Newspaper, Times Ledger, and The West Indian Newspaper.

Justin Monaco was born and raised in Ozone Park, Queens by a single dad.  He was a student at PS/MS 207 in Howard Beach, Holy Cross HS in Flushing, and Queens College in Flushing.  He began his career as a Social Studies teacher at MS 158 in Bayside in 2013.

Monaco has devoted his time to bringing awareness to LGBT equality and  inclusiveness, upon the recent changes to the NYS Social Studies Framework and Regents examinations with the addition of the teaching of the Stonewall Inn Riots and LGBT rights.  He has done workshops on incorporating LGBT issues into NYC classrooms.  Monaco has presented to the NYC Social Studies Supervisors Association, the American Teachers of Social Studies (ATSS)/United Federation of Teachers (UFT) Social Studies Conference and the NYS Social Studies Teachers and Supervisors Education Conference in Albany.  His presentations dealt with the influence of gay life during the Harlem Renaissance, the impact of the Holocaust upon gay males, the Lavender Scare, the Stonewall Inn Riots, President Obama’s impact on the LGBT community and the teaching of court decisions both favorable and unfavorable to the LGBT community.  Several of Monaco’s middle school students have completed their eight grade exit projects on the impact of the Stonewall Inn Riots on the LGBT movement.  Next year, he will be presenting an LGBT workshop at the National Council of Social Studies Conference in San Francisco.

Aside from his efforts of teaching LGBT equality, Monaco has won the Best New Social Studies Teacher Award  by the UFT in 2015.  He was also recently elected to be the new Secretary for the NYC Social Studies Supervisors Association’s  Executive Board.  He has written two articles on the Stonewall Inn Riots and the Lavender Scare which were published in the UFT Social Studies Quarterly Journal.  He has just recently completed his Master’s degree in Secondary Social Studies education and has been accepted to a graduate program at Queens College for school administration in the fall. Press Release.