New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has named Lillian Bonsignore commissioner of the Fire Department of New York, making her the second woman and first out gay person in that post.
Bonsignore was born in the Bronx. She joined the FDNY in 1991 as an emergency medical technician and served 31 years, retiring in 2022. She was named chief of the FDNY’s Emergency Medical Services division in 2019, becoming the first woman to head the division and first uniformed woman to be a four-star chief in the department. During her tenure, she was a first responder in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and led the EMS division during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Some day in our world, we will not have to talk about the fact that I am a woman, or about being openly gay when I received a promotion like this. But today is not that day," Bonsignore said when appointed.
Elon Musk wrote in a post on X, which he owns, to attack Bonsignore, fallaciously claiming that "people will die because of this." Mamdani was quick to point out. He wrote in post directly replying to Musk, “Experience does matter, which is why I appointed the person who spent more than 30 years at EMS. You know, the workforce that addresses at least 70% of all calls coming into FDNY?”
Fortunately, things don't have to be the way Trump and Musk want them to be, there is still hope.
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