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The passage of Marriage Equality was not the only legislative victory for LGBT New Yorkers this year.  On June 14, the New York State Senate overwhelmingly passed my bill (S.1303) which requires the New York State Office for the Aging (NYSOFA) to assess the needs of traditionally underserved older adults—including veterans, immigrants, the disabled and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) seniors. This legislation will help ensure that traditionally underserved communities have access to appropriate health services.

On June 17, the Senate passed landmark legislation requiring insurance companies to provide coverage for the screening, diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders, including behavioral health treatments, speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy.I worked closely with the bill’s prime sponsor Senator Charles Fuschillo (R–Merrick), Senate Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Committee Chair Roy McDonald (R–Saratoga), Senate Insurance Committee Ranker Neil Breslin (D, WFP–Albany) and Senate Health Chair Kemp Hannon (R, C, I–Garden City) to craft this comprehensive legislation which will provide relief to countless New York families suffering from the financial toll that comes with autism.

The decades-long, systematic cover-up of childhood sexual abuse by institutions and persons in a position of authority is well known, and yet New York State’s antiquated statute of limitation laws have barred victims, who do not come to terms with what has happened to them until much later in life, from seeking justice. As a passionate advocate for the prevention of childhood sexual abuse as well as for redress and closure for adults living with its traumatic scars, I have long sponsored legislation that would create a one year window period to allow past survivors of sex abuse to come forward with claims regardless of when the abuse occurred.

May 13 was the last day for community members to fill out the St. Vincent’s Community Health Assessment Survey, which was created and distributed by the Lower West Side Health Needs Assessment Steering Committee and the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College in order to learn how the closure of St. Vincent’s Hospital has affected area residents’ health care.

Last year, the New York State Legislature passed legislation signed into law by then Governor David Paterson that would clarify that Class A multiple dwelling residential buildings may only be used as long-term residential housing, and not as transient, “illegal” hotels. This law, designed to fight the proliferation of illegal hotels, was slated to take effect May 1, 2011.  However, illegal hotel operators filed a lawsuit and sought a preliminary injunction, threatening to postpone the implementation date of the bill.

In late March, I joined New York State Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh and New York City Councilmember Dan Garodnick in spearheading a letter signed by 77 Federal, State and City elected officials to the Office of Housing Preservation at New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR), which had been asked to review the application of the rent laws in light of the State Court of Appeals ruling in Roberts v.

I am tremendously disappointed that New York State's Fiscal Year 2011-12 Enacted Budget did not include renewal and strengthening of our rent regulation system.  I am continuing to work with my progressive colleagues in the State Senate and leaders in the tenants rights movement to ensure both the renewal of the Emergency Tenant Protection Act before it expires on June 15 of this year and the expansion of tenant protections. I am a co-sponsor of an omnibus tenant protection bill (S.2783-A/ Espaillat), which, among other provisions, would:

On March 26, I joined the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, community and faith-based organizations and other elected officials in announcing the launch of the Sweatshop Free Upper West Side campaign, an effort to compel area businesses to enforce fair labor practices.  As I said at the event, “100 years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire—the worst industrial disaster in the history of New York City, which became the rallying cry for workplace safety standards and spawned the international labor movement—we must honor the legacy of those who perished by ensuring that the rights of workers are respected by every business and for every employee.”