Boston Names Quincy Roberts First Executive Director of LGBTQ Plus Advancement Office

BOSTON — July 19, 2026 — Boston names its first LGBTQ Plus Advancement Office director at a Pride kickoff on City Hall Plaza. Mayor Michelle Wu announced Quincy Roberts, who had been serving as the city's LGBTQ plus liaison in the Office of Neighborhood Services, as inaugural executive director of the newly created cabinet-level office, which Wu said was established roughly two months before the event. Roberts, who co-founded the Hispanic Black Gay Coalition in 2009, committed to implementing a gender equity ordinance and completing a community assessment within 90 days. City Council President Ed Flynn and At-Large Councilor Ruth Santana-Rugier, who chairs the council's Committee on Civil Rights and Immigrant Advancement, both praised the appointment. The city's LGBTQ plus employee resource group, represented by co-chair Lizzy Torres, used the occasion to distribute $1,000 grants each to LGBTQ Plus Elders of Color, the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, and Boston Glass, with Torres noting that Councilor Bachman had advocated for the ERG funding that made the grants possible. Separately, Gertrude Van Ness and board president Eileen Montour of LGBTQ Senior Housing announced that construction has begun on a 74-unit LGBTQ-welcoming senior community in Hyde Park — described as the first such development in New England — with applications expected to open for a fall 2023 move-in.