IN THE NEWS
NYC rallies against Trump, Adams, and Musk
“Trump’s hateful rhetoric and anti-immigrant policies never really left — we see them echoed in City Hall today. This rally isn’t just about resisting a man; it’s about resisting the normalization of cruelty. LGBTQ+ immigrants like me came here seeking safety, and instead, we are met with exclusion and hostility. Standing here today is about saying: “We refuse to go backward,” Okporo told the Amsterdam News.
An asylum seeker who arrived in the United States fleeing prosecution, Okporo’s story of being refuted as a gay immigrant and having to cast defiance resonated with hundreds that gathered that day.
By Christian Spencer
NYC Pols, Lawyers On Withstanding Exec. Orders They Deem Unconstitutional
Edafe Okporo is a City Council candidate for District 7 on the Upper West Side. He agrees - backing existing state law is an effective way to stop any unconstitutional executive orders., He says he’s grateful for the legislative protections the city and state provides. Okporo is from Nigeria. He says he fled his home country due to persecution for his sexuality and he’s worried about the standard that the executive order on gender affirming care could set
“We don’t know what other communities that are going to be affected, so this is a time for us to come out in mass and say ‘No’ to an unconstitutional executive order that the president is trying to enforce on us
By Oona Milliken
Edafe Okporo gains traction in local District 7 race
Okporo said he believes that Mayor Eric Adams is “making our communities unsafe,” creating a fear among migrants that has threatened their sense of community.
“It’s triggering for me, because I am a migrant myself,” Okporo said, referencing Adams. “I came to New York City, and I was able to find a life here because the community welcomed [me], and I feel like it’s on New York for us to stop creating policies of fear for people that are coming here to try and create a life for themselves.”
Fighting against this fear remains an integral part of his advocacy and platform, Okporo said, and the resilience of Black Americans is “the thing that keeps [him] going.”
By TSEHAI ALFRED
Broadway Democrats hosts candidate forum for district 7 city council race
“In an interview with Spectator after the forum, Okporo said that the use of “eminent domain has led to a lot of displacement of a lot of Black and brown people in the community.” He said he aims to renegotiate the Community Benefits Agreement, a 50-page document signed in 2009, in which the University promises the community $180 million in benefits over 36 years. He hopes to hold Columbia accountable for its impacts on surrounding neighborhoods.”
By Evin Schwartz
New York City Council challengers are (literally) giving incumbents a run for their money
Council Member Shaun Abreu has been racking up endorsements lately. While his war chest is larger than his opponent’s, gay Nigerian refugee Edafe Okporo, the challenger’s fundraising is nothing to sneeze at, having already exceeded the public matching funds threshold.
By Sophie Krichevsky
The Rundown: Black and Brown City Council seats up for grabs
“New York must be a city that protects its people, not one that pushes them aside. As an immigrant, an activist, and a community leader, I have fought for policies that uphold dignity, fairness, and opportunity for all,” said Okporo. “Now, I’m ready to take that fight to City Hall. Our campaign is about ensuring middle-class families can afford to stay in their homes, guaranteeing retirees the healthcare they deserve, and making our neighborhoods safer without criminalizing poverty. In the face of fear and division, we will stand united — for an NYC that works for all of us.”
By Ariama C. Long
Eric Adams’ State of the City address portrays him as a “people’s mayor.” But the people may disagree.
Edafe Okporo, a City Council District 7 Candidate, railed against Adams over public safety and affordability issues. “In the last three years, Mayor Adams has increased the budget for the NYPD, but not for community safety like mental health and mobile intensive vans that work. We need to actually make New York affordable for families,” said Okporo at the protest.
By Ariama C. Long
LGBTQ Advocates Work to Expand Access, Prepare Communities for Upcoming Anti-LGBTQ Agenda in Washington
“I lost my country, Nigeria, because I stood against a law that was criminalizing [LGBTQ] people like me,” Okporo continued. “I know, if elected to City Council, I will be fighting for New Yorkers.”
By Lana Leonard
Manhattan Council race heats up with entrance of refugee turned migrant advocate
“I am the example of what New York stands for: that somebody can come here and create a life for themselves,” Okporo told Gothamist in an interview ahead of his announcement Wednesday
By Giulia Heyward
Edafe Okporo, a Gay Nigerian Refugee, Could Be the First Former Asylum Seeker Elected to the NYC Council
“When we take opportunities from the most marginalized people in our society, we’re taking opportunities from all of us,” he says. “If migrants come in as dishwashers or restaurant workers, their children will get to be doctors. That is, we integrate as New Yorkers. What the mayor and other members of the City Council are trying to do is to strip us of who we are: a melting pot.”
By NICO LANG
NYC Council candidate advocates for LGBTQ refugees
They say representation is one of the best ways to lift up issues. We don’t have anyone in city hall right now who has an understanding of what it is to come to America and build a life in New York City. I hope to bring that diversity and perspective to city council,”
ByErkki Forster
Kicking Off Change: Edafe Okporo’s Community-Centric Campaign for City Council
Although Okporo is a first-time politician, he isn’t new to building community, whether on or off the field. Soon after he moved to the U.S., he started directing the RDJ Refugee Shelter, the first shelter for unhoused asylum seekers in New York City. Okporo said he wanted the shelter to be a safe place for migrants, especially those in the LGBTQ community who don’t fit in the gender binary of city-run shelters.
By Sharla Steinman
Edafe Okporo’s Manifesto for the Migrant
Asylum is a searing account of how legislators and anti-gay zealots have pushed LGBTQ people into hiding and across borders, and how activists like Edafe Okporo have overcome such attacks and repression to achieve moral clarity, carving out spaces of safety, creativity, and power. The book is remarkable in its own right: Okporo has the stentorian, inviting voice of a classical orator—a power that comes across on the page.
By John Washington
LGBTQ+ Rights and Immigration Activist Edafe Okporo to Be Honored with American Heritage Award
The American Immigration Council will honor global LGBTQ+ rights activist and founder of Refuge America, Edafe Okporo, with its American Heritage Award on Friday, June 17 at the Javits Center in New York.
The award recognizes the talents, contributions, and accomplishments of immigrants and their advocates and will be presented during an interactive arts celebration that highlights notable immigrants, national heroes, and unsung heroes like immigration lawyers.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: A Gay Refugee's Confrontation With America
In his insightful memoir, “Asylum,” the Nigerian refugee and activist Edafe Okporo paints a disturbing picture of exactly how dangerous being gay in Nigeria can be… a disquieting account that humanizes a nameless, faceless multitude entangled in an issue with no clear end in sight.”
By NYT Book Review
West Siders Take to the Street for an Open Air Town Hall
A town hall unlike anything seen on the Upper West Side in recent years took place on West End Avenue on Tuesday night, with politicians and energized citizens calling out concerns and possible solutions.
Okporo stated that immigrants often lived in “over-policed communities…and face deportation for even the most minor of offenses.”
ByRENEE RODEN