Deputy Mayor Jeffrey Roth on being gay in the military – and governing NYC under Trump

For Jeffrey Roth, the Adams administration’s newly appointed deputy mayor for operations, the life he’s built in New York over the past two decades has been closely entwined with public service – both in government and the military. Since first moving to the city in 2007, he’s worked in some capacity under the last three mayoral administrations – each in positions with data management as a central theme.

Under the Bloomberg administration, Roth worked as a senior policy adviser for several years then joined the New York City Fire Department where he used data analytics to try to prevent and predict where fires might occur. Under the de Blasio administration,  he served as a deputy commissioner at the Taxi & Limousine Commission – overseeing the rise of rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft – and a deputy commissioner in the newly-formed New York City Department of Veterans Services. Most recently, Roth, also a colonel in the Army National Guard, commanded Joint Task Force Empire Shield – a National Guard taskforce that protects New York’s major transportation hubs, including the subway system.

In March 2025, mere weeks after declaring his candidacy for the Westchester County Board of Legislators district one where he’d lived for several years, Roth got a call from the Adams administration asking him to join the team as deputy mayor for operations following the resignation of predecessor Meera Joshi. (Roth also has a residence in Brooklyn where he says he is now living full time).

City & State spoke with Roth about how he came to join the Adams administration, the impact he’s had as City Hall’s highest-ranking out LGBTQ official, his priorities as deputy mayor for operations, and what it was like experiencing the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” as a gay service member. Excerpts from this interview have been edited for length and clarity.

I understand that you’ve had a pretty interesting journey – both in terms of coming to terms with your personal identity and how you came to be involved in New York City politics. Tell us a little bit about how you got here.

I grew up in Michigan in a small, small town outside of Detroit. When I went back to visit, I kept asking myself wow, just how small a town was it? There’s a cluster of small towns so it didn’t feel that isolated at the time despite it being about 6,000 to 8,000 people. I went into the Michigan State University Reserve Officers’ Training Corps – that’s how I was going to pay for college – I got a scholarship then after I graduated, I was deployed to Egypt for a year. That’s actually where I started to internally deal with some stuff and mind you, this was in the age of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and all that. There was a personal coming out and more of a community coming out following that. After I got back though, I found my way to graduate school in Boston and was there two years and then moved to New York City in 2007.

What was it like experiencing the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” as a gay military service member? How did you come to terms with your identity?

I was driving alone in my car on my way to see family at the time – this was December 2010 – and I remember listening to the radio as it played the Senate vote. When the final vote came out, it was in favor of repeal. And I remember the years leading up to that. President (Barack) Obama was bringing heightened attention to it, and just personally, while I was glad there were discussions of repeal, the heightened attention also amplified discussion and conversations about the issue. There were a lot of people and a lot of forces – even some I’d worked with – that were pretty much against the repeal. It was an uncomfortable time.

When the repeal happened – and it took a year to go through that process – I slowly came out to colleagues and friends of mine. Some of the most amazing personal support I’ve gotten in my life are from colleagues in the military that simply said it doesn’t change anything. Don’t care. We’re all here to focus on the task commission and move that forward. I felt very very supported by personnel in the military. Now that I’m in the National Guard and my colleagues were so supportive of me through that period of time, it’s probably part of why I’ve been part of the National Guard so many years.

Growing up in the age that I did in the ’80s and early ’90s in a small town, in many ways I felt different. Maybe I recognized my truth in some ways, but I didn’t have guidance on what it meant or how to explore it. Also, when I was 17 years old, my older brother, who had served in the U.S. Army, died at the Army Airborne School, so there were just other things going on that I think delayed some of my own personal reflection and searching.

But this changed when I was deployed to Egypt in 2003. You know, I get why historical documents always show people going to the desert to find quiet. There’s a calmness there that allowed me to do some soul-searching. That’s when I connected some dots internally and realized that what I feel there’s a word for it, and that word is gay and that’s who I am. Over time, I learned how to be out, how to come out and how to be OK with myself because so much of the messaging early on in my childhood and in those years was just very negative. I’m so proud of how far I’ve come personally, but also how far we’ve come and moved as a country, how far the military has moved in these conversations. I have a lot of hope. I also have a lot of fear. Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a concerning movement with legislation, bans and rhetoric around LGBTQ people and I hope we don’t slip back to another time.

You joined the Adams administration at a very interesting albeit complicated time. Were you looking to go back into city government when you got the call to be deputy mayor of operations?

I’ve sort of joked that I was minding my own business, leading the Joint Task Force Empire Shield here in New York City when some former colleagues reached out just to say, hey, there’s a potential opportunity, and we want to talk to you about your background. While my portfolio of experiences in government has been pretty wide, the heft of it has been in operations – transportation with the Taxi & Limousine Commission, tech and public safety and emergency response at the New York City Fire Department – so there were these threads that very much tied to the deputy mayor portfolio for operations. Also in leading the task force, which is very much tied to the city’s critical infrastructure through providing security at bridges and tunnels, helping with emergency response and stationing service members at Penn Station or Grand Central, I think decision-makers at City Hall thought my background would be a good fit for someone to help drive projects forward.

You are currently the city’s highest-ranking LGBTQ+ official. How does the current social and political climate factor into how you are approaching your work? Do you feel a sense of heightened urgency as LGBTQ+ rights are challenged and, in some instances, rolled back in places around the country?

My portfolio focuses on a few things: operational efficiency, revitalizing our infrastructure and climate resiliency – something that is closely tied to flood mitigation, heat mitigation, those sorts of things. A number of those projects depend on federal dollars to support those things and move them forward quickly. So it is critical for us to have healthy relationships with our federal partners for us as a city to advocate and communicate how important these projects are for protecting various neighborhoods across the city. The mayor has said we can’t war with the current administration. We have to work with them, and I think that’s been our posture – using relationship-building, communicating and advocating. We’ve seen how that’s played out like with the Empire Wind farm project. From an economic development and a climate perspective, that project is so important for the city. So when the Trump administration pulled the permits to stop that work, the mayor had conversations with the state, with our federal partners with Empire Wind and helped get that project back on.

From a more personal standpoint, I recently introduced the mayor at his Pride reception at Gracie Mansion. One of the things I said there is much like the past, leading up to the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” I have great hope, but a lot of fear. There is this tension and how do we sit with that as people in LGBTQ community? It’s not always easy, but I know we’ve gotten through hard things before. There is a lot of rhetoric across our country about our community, and I think it’s in times like this that we have to lock arms and focus on the work and keep moving forward and just have hope that things will continue to improve. I’ve seen these conversations, the ups and downs. President Barack Obama has said progress isn’t a linear, forward progressing path. It zigs and zags, there’s ups and downs. We just have to keep going.

What is the Adams administration doing to protect LGBTQ+ New Yorkers? 

I’ve been in Brooklyn many, many years, and I’m very familiar with Adams. I know when he was a police officer he stood with the Gay Officers Action League at a time when that was unpopular. As a state senator he voted for same-sex marriage. As a mayor, when Staten Island refused to allow LGBTQ organizations to march in the Staten Island parade, he said the city would do a better, more inclusive parade instead. This year, the two parades were brought together. More personally, some of the things that I’ve heard him say is that you have to be good with who you are, don’t worry about the noise out there – focus on your truth and bring that. I feel very supported by him. Both in his public statements and public work, but also in the up close and personal.

There’s a lot of uncertainty right now with your role. If Adams doesn’t win reelection in November, theoretically you may only be in the deputy role for a few months. With that in mind, what are you hoping to come away with having accomplished?

I see myself as a steward. A steward of public resources, public ideas, these projects that I get to support for whatever amount of time I’m here for and move them forward as best I can. My approach is very much picking up where my predecessor, Meera Joshi, left off. Maybe this is my command philosophy from my time as a colonel with the National Guard, but I’m very much focused on being in support of these incredible public servants and helping them advance that work. So much on a day to day, it’s problem-solving. It’s understanding where there are tension points between city agencies and looking at bringing folks to the table to work through those things.