Brad Madison Hoylman-Sigal (born October 27, 1965)
is an American
Democratic politician. First elected in 2012, Hoylman-Sigal represents the
47th District in the
New York State Senate
The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, while the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Established in 1777 by the Constitution of New York, its members are elected to two-year terms with no term l ...
, covering much of the west side of
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
in New York City. He is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Early life and education
Hoylman-Sigal was born in
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...
and grew up in rural
Lewisburg, West Virginia
Lewisburg is a city in and the county seat of Greenbrier County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 3,930 at the 2020 census.
History
Lewisburg is named after Andrew Lewis (American general), Andrew Lewis. In 1751 Lewis, as a youn ...
.
He was the youngest of six children of Audrey Kennedy Hoylman, a public elementary school teacher, and James M. Hoylman, a
process systems analytics analyst.
He is a former
Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of Scouting America. Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Scout rank has been earned by over ...
in Troop 70, Lewisburg, West Virginia. He attended
Greenbrier East High School in West Virginia.
He attended
West Virginia University
West Virginia University (WVU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia, United States. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Ins ...
(WVU; BA in
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
and
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...
, 1989), where Hoylman-Sigal was elected president of student administration and graduated ''
summa cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...
'' with honors.
At WVU he was a member of
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
, and received a
Truman Scholarship
The Harry S. Truman Scholarship is a graduate fellowship in the United States for public service leadership. It is a federally funded scholarship granted to U.S. undergraduate students for demonstrated leadership potential, academic excellence ...
and a
Marshall Scholarship
The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is considered among the most prestigious scholarsh ...
.
[
Hoylman-Sigal then attended ]Oxford University
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
( Exeter College) on a Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world.
Established in 1902, it is ...
. He received a master's degree in political science (M.Phil., 1992).
Afterward, he attended Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
. He graduated with a JD in 1996.
Early career
Hoylman-Sigal was an associate at law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison from 1996 to 1998. He was an associate at Frankfurt, Garbus, Klein & Selz from 1998 to 2000.
From 2000 to 2012, Hoylman-Sigal served as executive vice president and general counsel of the Partnership for New York City
The Partnership for New York City, formerly called the New York City Partnership, is a nonprofit membership organization consisting of a select group of nearly three hundred CEOs ("Partners") from New York City's top corporate, investment and ent ...
, which represents New York City's business leadership and its largest private-sector employers.
Hoylman-Sigal was also the chairperson of Community Board 2 in Manhattan, and the Democratic District Leader of the New York 66th Assembly District, Part A. He is also Trustee of the Community Service Society of New York
The Community Service Society of New York is an independent, nonprofit organization established in 1939. Originally formed as a charity providing direct assistance to the poor, its mission has evolved include research and advocacy, as well as l ...
, a former president of the Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats, and a former board member of the Empire State Pride Agenda, Tenants & Neighbors, Class Size Matters, and Citizen Action.
In 2001, Hoylman-Sigal ran for the New York City Council
The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City in the United States. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs.
The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government mod ...
in the first district, which includes Governor's Island and a portion of Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...
. He placed second in a seven-candidate race, losing to Alan Gerson
Alan Jay Gerson (born November 1, 1957) is a former Democratic Party member of the New York City Council, first elected in 2001, and reelected in 2005, to represent the 1st district in Manhattan. Prior to that Gerson served as Chair of Manhat ...
.
New York Senate
2013–2019
On June 11, 2012, Hoylman-Sigal declared his candidacy for the 27th District of the New York State Senate
The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, while the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Established in 1777 by the Constitution of New York, its members are elected to two-year terms with no term l ...
, running for the seat of retiring state senator Tom Duane. He won Duane's endorsement, as well as the support of numerous local politicians and unions. In the Democratic primary election held on September 13, 2012, he won 68% of the vote in a three-candidate field.["Brad Hoylman Wins Primary to Replace State Sen. Tom Duane"]
. DNAinfo.com, September 14, 2012. Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, or Midtown West on real estate listings, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, ...
activist and bar owner Tom Greco was his closest competition, winning 24% of the vote. In the general election in November he was unopposed.
Hoylman-Sigal won the Democratic primary and general election (with 80% of the vote) in 2014, 2016 (with 96% of the vote), and 2018 (with 99% of the vote). In 2019, Hoylman-Sigal was the only openly gay member of the New York State Senate; he would later be joined by Jabari Brisport in 2021.
In December 2016, Hoylman-Sigal sponsored legislation known as the Tax Returns Uniformly Made Public (T.R.U.M.P.) Act, prohibiting New York State electors from voting for a presidential candidate who has not publicly released at least five years worth of tax returns no later than fifty days prior to a general election. Lawmakers in twenty-five other states followed suit in producing legislation to compel presidential candidates to release their tax returns. The idea was praised by the editorial board of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''.
After the 2018 midterm elections, Hoylman-Sigal was appointed Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In the majority, Hoylman-Sigal passed multiple pieces of legislation including the Child Victims Act, the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (or GENDA), and a ban on so-called 'gay conversion therapy
Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. Methods that have bee ...
.' Hoylman-Sigal also sponsored the TRUST Act, which was passed by the state Senate. The bill would allow certain Congressional committees to perform oversight by reviewing the New York State tax returns of senior government officials; members of Congress suggested this could allow Congressional committees to review Donald Trump's tax returns. ''City & State
''City & State'' is a political journalism organization based in New York City. The company publishes a weekly magazine covering politics and government in New York City and New York State that is distributed to New York State legislators, co ...
'', a New York-based political news organization, characterized Hoylman-Sigal as "the person behind state Senate’s progressive bills."
In 2019, the Child Victims Act that Hoylman-Sigal sponsored was adopted. It extended New York's statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in Human sexual activity, sexual activit ...
and created a one-year lookback window within which survivors would be able to initiate claims against their abusers in cases where the statute of limitations had expired, and allowed them to bring a civil lawsuit against their abuser or institutions that enabled or protected their abuser by the age of 55 (up from the age of 23). Over 9,000 lawsuits have been filed under that law, including against the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
, the Boy Scouts, and other groups that cared for children.
2020–present
In early 2021, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill, sponsored by Hoylman-Sigal, to repeal New York's ban on paid gestational surrogacy
Surrogacy is an arrangement whereby a woman gets pregnant and gives birth on behalf of another person or couple who will become the child's legal parents after birth. People pursue surrogacy for a variety of reasons such as infertility, danger ...
. Assemblywoman Amy Paulin introduced the bill in 2012. As of the bill's passage, only two other states (Louisiana and Michigan) retained laws explicitly banning paid surrogacy.
In June 2021, the New York Senate passed the Adult Survivors Act (ASA), which was sponsored by Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal. The bill failed to pass the Assembly in 2021. However, Rosenthal and Hoylman-Sigal introduced the ASA again the following year.[Kate Lisa]
New York Assembly secures votes to pass Adult Survivors Act
Spectrum News
Spectrum News (formerly Time Warner Cable News) is the brand for a slate of United States cable news, cable news television channels that are owned by Charter Communications through its acquisition of Time Warner Cable in May 2016. Each of the ...
(May 2022). This time, the legislation was enacted: it unanimously passed the Senate in April 2022, passed the Assembly on a 140–3 vote in May 2022,[Grace Ashford]
New York Will Allow Adult Victims to Revive Decades-Old Sex Abuse Claims
''New York Times'' (May 23, 2022). and was signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul
Kathleen Hochul ( ; ; born August 27, 1958) is an American politician and lawyer who has served since 2021 as the 57th governor of New York. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she is New York's List of female ...
. The bill established a one-year "lookback period" that allowed adult victims of sex abuse or sex crimes to bring civil lawsuits that were previously barred due to the statute of limitations
A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In ...
.[ He is endorsed by the ]Working Families Party
The Working Families Party (WFP) is a progressive minor political party in the United States, founded in New York in 1998. There are active chapters in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois ...
.
In 2021, Hoylman-Sigal asked U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell
Maria Ellen Cantwell (; born October 13, 1958) is an American politician who has been the junior United States senator from Washington since 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, she served in the Washington House of Representatives from 19 ...
, the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, engage in oversight of the United States Center for SafeSport, and step in to ensure that SafeSport is adequately conducting investigations. He referred to what he called SafeSport's failure to carry out impartial and thorough investigations and ensure the safety of athletes it is charged with protecting. He highlighted serious outstanding allegations of sexual misconduct
Sexual misconduct is misconduct of a sexual nature which exists on a spectrum that may include a broad range of sexual behaviors considered unwelcome. This includes conduct considered inappropriate on an individual or societal basis of morality, ...
, sexual coercion
Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person w ...
, and other violent behaviors by former friends, peers, and current teammates, and an ongoing investigation, and criticized SafeSport's decision to allow fencer Alen Hadzic to Tokyo as an alternate for the 2021 U.S. Olympic fencing team.
In 2021, ''City & State
''City & State'' is a political journalism organization based in New York City. The company publishes a weekly magazine covering politics and government in New York City and New York State that is distributed to New York State legislators, co ...
'' ranked Hoylman-Sigal #11 on its annual list of the 100 most powerful people in Manhattan.
In 2021, Hoylman-Sigal proposed legislation to ban landlords convicted of criminal activity from doing business with state-chartered banks. Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with a significant global presence. The company operates in 35 countries and serves over 70 million customers worldwide. It is a systemically important fi ...
and Bank of America
The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...
. Signature Bank and New York Community Bank are not state banks. Steven Croman, a landlord notorious for harassing his tenants in New York, was the inspiration for this bill.
In 2021, to address New York's housing crisis, Hoylman-Sigal proposed legislation to remove a number of zoning regulations in New York that he viewed as onerous. The legislation would eliminate parking requirements; prohibit localities from requiring large lot sizes for homes; and allow for the construction of up to four housing units on lots that were previously exclusively zoned for single-family housing.
In 2023, Hoylman-Sigal became the New York State Senator for the 47th district, which was redistricted from the 27th district. Hoylman-Sigal's old district included Chelsea, Midtown, and the East Village, up to north of Columbus Circle
Columbus Circle is a traffic circle and heavily trafficked intersection in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eighth Avenue, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, ...
. The new and more compact 47th district excluded the East Side and covered the West Side, from Chelsea through the Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper We ...
.
Hoylman-Sigal is a member of the Vote Blue Coalition, a progressive group and federal PAC created to support Democrats in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania through voter outreach and mobilization efforts.
Other elections
In June 2021, Mark Levine defeated Hoylman-Sigal in the Democratic primary election
Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pr ...
for Manhattan Borough President. Levine won by 7.4 percentage point
A percentage point or percent point is the unit (measurement), unit for the difference (mathematics), arithmetic difference between two percentages. For example, moving up from 40 percent to 44 percent is an increase of 4 percentage points (altho ...
s. This was the first year that ranked-choice voting was implemented for most New York City election and primary contests.
In December 2024, Hoylman-Sigal announced he would be running for Manhattan Borough President in the Democratic Primary.
Personal life
Hoylman married David Ivan Sigal, a filmmaker, at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in Manhattan, New York City, in February 2013. They live with their two daughters, Silvia and Lucy, in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
. Hoylman-Sigal is Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
.[Benjamin, Liz (March 25, 2013)]
Why is tomorrow night different from all other nights?
Capital Tonight. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
Electoral history
See also
* LGBT culture in New York City
New York City has been described as the gay village, gay capital of the world and the central node of the LGBTQ+ political sociology, sociopolitical ecosystem, and is home to one of the world's largest and most prominent LGBTQ+ populations. Br ...
* LGBT rights in New York
* List of LGBT people from New York City
New York City has been described as the gay village, gay capital of the world and the central node of the LGBTQ+ political sociology, sociopolitical ecosystem. It is home to one of the world's largest and most prominent LGBTQ populations. LGBTQ ...
* NYC Pride March
The NYC Pride March is an annual event celebrating the LGBT culture in New York City, LGBTQ community in New York City#Sexual orientation and gender identity, New York City. The largest pride parade and the List of largest LGBT events, larges ...
References
External links
Official website
Campaign website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoylman, Brad
Living people
1965 births
Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford
American lawyers
American Rhodes Scholars
Candidates in the 2021 United States elections
American gay politicians
Harvard Law School alumni
American LGBTQ lawyers
LGBTQ people from West Virginia
LGBTQ state legislators in New York (state)
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison people
People from Lewisburg, West Virginia
Democratic Party New York (state) state senators
West Virginia University alumni
Lawyers from New York City
Politicians from Manhattan
20th-century American lawyers
21st-century American lawyers
21st-century American LGBTQ people
21st-century members of the New York State Legislature