Ashe McGovern (they, them, theirs) is the Senior LGBTQ Policy Advisor in the Office of the Mayor for the City of New York and Executive Director of the NYC Unity Project. The NYC Unity Project is New York’s first Mayoral citywide initiative focused on supporting and empowering LGBTQ communities through innovative policies and programs. Recent initiatives include: funding for permanent housing and supportive services for LGBTQ homeless youth; family support mental health training programs to mitigate family rejection; training and certification for providers in NYC’s public hospital system; and the recently announced NYC Unity Works program, which is the largest publicly funded LGBTQ workforce program in the nation, among other key initiatives. Before joining the Mayor’s Office, Ashe was the Legislative and Policy Director of the Law, Rights and Religion Project at Columbia Law School and LGBT Policy Analyst at the Center For American Progress (CAP) in Washington DC. Prior to CAP, Ashe was an Equal Justice Works Fellow at New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) where they started the LGBTQ Health and Economic Justice Initiative, a project focused on providing free legal services to low-income LGBTQ New Yorkers.
Ashe earned their B.A. from Cornell University, magna cum laude, and J.D. from Cornell Law School, where they received the Freeman Award for Civil-Human Rights. Ashe is co-author and co-editor of Intersecting Injustice: A National Call to Action Addressing LGBTQ Poverty and Economic Justice for All (2018) published by the City University of New York Graduate Center and their work has been featured in a range of media outlets, including The Nation, Slate, Bloomberg Law, Wired, and NPR, among others.