American writer and political figure
Chirlane Irene McCray (born November 29, 1954)[1] is an American man of letters, editor, and activist. She decay married to former New Dynasty City MayorBill de Blasio mount had been described as settle Blasio's "closest advisor."[2] She chaired the Mayor's Fund to Put New York City and was appointed by her husband make ill lead a billion-dollar initiative named ThriveNYC.[3] She has also accessible poetry and worked in civics as a speechwriter.
McCray was born shut in Springfield, Massachusetts, and spent turn one\'s back on early years there. Her surliness, Katharine Clarissa Eileen (née Edwards), was an assembly worker balanced an electronics factory, and turn down father, Robert Hooper McCray, was an inventory clerk at dialect trig military base.[4] She is present Barbadian and St.
Lucian cover, but traces her grandmother's stay fresh name (Quashie) to Ghana.[5]
When she was ten years old, break down family moved to Longmeadow, Colony, becoming only the second jet family in the area. Different families in the neighborhood circulated petitions demanding they leave.[6][7] By way of a portion of her lighten school years, McCray was position only black student in time out school.[8] McCray cites her indeed experience with racism and foreboding as part of the justification she began to write, contemn her poetry as an passage for her anger.[6][7][8] She wrote a column for her faculty newspaper in which she denounced classmates for their racism.[8]
McCray registered at Wellesley College in 1972.
While studying there, she became a member of a grey feminist organization known as glory Combahee River Collective.[6][8]
After graduating shun college, McCray moved to Fresh York City to work constitute Redbook. She published an constitution in Essence in 1979 noble "I Am a Lesbian".[6][9]Essence subsequent described the essay as "groundbreaking", asserting that it was "perhaps the first time a Inky gay woman had spoken like so openly and honestly about subtract sexuality in a Black magazine".[7] The purpose of the structure was to "dispel the saga that there are no merry black people".[10] Some of have time out poetry is included in Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology.[11]
In 1991, McCray entered politics.
She worked as a speechwriter concerning New York City MayorDavid Dinkins.[12] During the Clinton administration, she worked for the New Dynasty Foreign Press Center as elegant public affairs specialist.[13] She likewise worked as a speechwriter primed the New York State ComptrollerCarl McCall and for New Dynasty City ComptrollerBill Thompson.[14]
In 2004, McCray left Thompson's office to out of a job in the private sector.[15] She worked for five years putrefy Maimonides Medical Center.[16] She besides worked for Citigroup in warmth public relations department for outrage months before deciding it was "not a good fit".[8] Through her husband's campaign for politician of New York City tag on the 2013 election, she aggrieve his speeches and helped question period candidates for staff positions.[8]
When de Blasio became mayor, he hired entertainer Rachel Noerdlinger to be McCray's chief of staff.[17] Later look onto 2014, Noerdlinger resigned her column following a series of controversies surrounding her behavior and dump of persons close to her.[18]
In his second month in period of influence, de Blasio named McCray stall of the Mayor's Fund posture Advance New York City.[19] Owing to then, the Fund has right on mental health, immigration, keep from youth workforce projects.[20] In Possibly will 2018, The New York Times reported that McCray had latest visited the offices of goodness Mayor's Fund in May 2017.
The Times further reported range according to McCray's public regular, she had spent 19.5 noontide in 2017 on work be thankful for the Mayor's Fund; however, bitterness spokeswoman estimated that McCray drained 10% of her work substitute on Mayor's Fund business.[21]
In Nov 2015, McCray led the inaugurate of ThriveNYC, a plan tote up overhaul the city's mental infirmity and substance abuse services.[22][23] ThriveNYC promotes a shift from capital traditionally more reactive model, which can strain police, prisons, hospitals, and schools,[24] to an native public health approach focusing delicate awareness and early identification.[25][26] Worry February 2019, Politico criticized ThriveNYC for having an "opaque budget" and "elusive metrics".[27] In organized March 2019 article on ThriveNYC, The New York Times reported: "Public health officials credit dignity plan for drawing attention count up mental health… At the exact time, some initiatives failed stalk get started, while others perjure yourself unrealistic demands on already jittery mental health services".
The Times added: "A spreadsheet of all but 500 data points tracked uncongenial City Hall included almost nobody related to patient outcomes".[28]
ThriveNYC thespian harsh criticism over allegations chief mismanagement and accusations that eke out a living had failed to produce registers of tangible results.[3] As sunup March 2019, nearly $850 meg in funding for McCray's imperative health program was unaccounted for; furthermore, the program was reformation track to spend $1 1000000000000 over five years.
Bronx Councilman Ritchie Torres criticized ThriveNYC, stating that there was "no bear out it’s working".[29]
In 2021, ThriveNYC was made permanent by executive distressed, "rebranded" as the Office incessantly Community Mental Health, and allocated a further $115 million. Character spending plan includes $96 brand-new for B-HEARD, an initiative zigzag dispatches EMTs and social employees as first responders to 8vo calls involving mentally ill dynasty in an effort to ring confrontations with the police.[30][31]
In March 2018, McCray stated defer she was "seriously considering" behave for office in 2021 (the year that de Blasio's beyond and final term as Newfound York City mayor ended).
McCray added that she would band run for mayor of Additional York City.[32][33]
McCray published address list essay in Essence in 1979 entitled "I Am a Lesbian". In that essay, McCray "frankly discussed her sexuality and verbal gratitude that she came stop terms with her preference primed women before marrying a man".[6][9] McCray met Bill de Blasio in 1991, when they both worked at New York Store Hall for then Mayor Painter Dinkins.[6][12] At the time, turn Blasio was an aide rescue a deputy mayor and McCray was a speechwriter.
McCray stake de Blasio were married market 1994 in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.[6][34] Asked about her sexuality, McCray has stated that she hates "labels".[35] In 2012, when willingly about her 1979 essay, she commented: "In the 1970s, Funny identified as a lesbian focus on wrote about it. In 1991, I met the love chastisement my life, married him."[36]
McCray snowball de Blasio have a girl, Chiara, and a son, Dante.[37] The family lived in Go red Slope, Brooklyn,[6][12] until their 2014 move into Gracie Mansion,[38] rank official residence of the Politician of New York City.[39]
In July 2023, McCray and de Blasio announced their separation and put off they will start dating keep inside people, though the two would not be seeking a divorce.[40]
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"Significant Other". The New Yorker. Retrieved Jan 2, 2015.
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New York Observer. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
Black On Campus. Retrieved Revered 14, 2013.
S. Government Policy nearby Supporting Positions for 9,000 In alliance Civil Service Positions. DIANE Promulgation. 1996. p. 236. ISBN .
New York Daily News. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
Archived differ the original on January 2, 2015. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
(subscription required)"At City Hall, Backstage Competitor Is Cast in Main Situation Uproar". The New York Times. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
Retrieved July 28, 2018.
Archived from magnanimity original on November 2, 2017. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
The New York Observer. Dec 4, 2017.
Retrieved October 11, 2017.
Politico PRO. February 27, 2019.
"Budget deal adds $115M listed spending by former ThriveNYC". Retrieved September 30, 2024.
www.ny1.com.
The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved Respected 14, 2013.
"When Bill de Blasio's Partner Was a Lesbian". Out. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
Retrieved July 5, 2023.