CITY & STATE: The 2025 Pride Trailblazers
Congratulations to New York City AIDS Memorial Board Members Ethan Geto and Tucker Woods on their inclusion in the City & State 2025 Pride Trailblazers list!
After years of making remarkable progress in winning public support and securing policy changes, the LGBTQ+ community is now on defense. The Trump administration is slashing spending on research into LGBTQ+ health care and seeking to cut resources for an LGBTQ+ youth suicide hotline. With the White House actively opposing diversity initiatives of any kind, corporations are backing away from supporting annual Pride events. Courts are chipping away at LGBTQ+ protections. And while New York remains a bastion of support and safety, elected officials in many other states – even California – are advancing measures that strip safeguards and services for transgender people.
City & State’s Pride Trailblazers list highlights the LGBTQ+ advocates and executives who are fighting back. The list, written and researched in partnership with journalist Tim Murphy, features leaders of nonprofits that ensure medical care and other services remain accessible for the community. It includes business leaders emphasizing the importance of inclusivity and acceptance. And it recognizes activists who are staying on the offensive as they lobby for LGBTQ+ legislation.
Ethan Geto, Founding Principal, Geto & de Milly
Since forming his powerhouse public affairs firm in 1980, Ethan Geto has advised corporations, advocacy groups, nonprofits and industry associations. He has served in government, including as New York City assistant buildings commissioner and as a legislative aide on Capitol Hill. He also has worked on presidential campaigns spanning from Robert F. Kennedy to Barack Obama. The native New Yorker joined the Gay Activists Alliance in 1971 and has advocated for LGBTQ+ rights and HIV/AIDS issues ever since. He’s also a founding board member and backer of both The American LGBTQ+ Museum and the New York City AIDS Memorial.
Tucker Woods, Associate Chair of the Emergency Department, Staten Island University Hospital
Earlier this year, Dr. Tucker Woods took on a new role helping to lead the Emergency Department at Staten Island University Hospital, a 668-bed teaching hospital with two campuses in the borough. Woods, a Northwell Health veteran who was previously at the health care system’s Lenox Health Greenwich Village facility, has demonstrated a long-standing focus on LGBTQ+ health care. He has helped expand access to care in the community and also has served as executive sponsor of Northwell’s LGBTQ+ Subcommittee for Emergency Medicine Services.