Governor Hochul: "Happy Lunar New Year. No place to celebrate better than Flushing, Queens. This is one of the most diverse places on our planet…And this year, more than any other, we have something very special to celebrate. This is the first year we have now…made Lunar New Year celebration a school holiday.”
Hochul: “Also, continuing our pledge to protect the AAPI community from hate crimes, protecting our streets, protecting our shop owners, and making sure they know that our number one job here in the State of New York is their safety. $30 million we're allocating this year to make sure that we can support our AAPI community.”
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul marched in the Flushing Chinese Business Association’s annual Lunar New Year Parade. In September 2023, Governor Hochul signed legislation to declare Lunar New Year a public school holiday across New York State, underscoring the Governor’s commitment to supporting and protecting New York’s AAPI community.
B-ROLL of the Governor marching in the parade is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the event is available here.
PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good morning. Happy Lunar New Year. No place to celebrate better than Flushing, Queens. This is one of the most diverse places on our planet. We’ve come together to celebrate our AAPI heritage.
And this year, more than any other, we have something very special to celebrate. This is the first year we have now made the full day of celebration for families to be reunited, and made Lunar New Year celebration a school holiday. I signed that into law back in September. It is now statewide, and everyone is so enthusiastic that families do not have to be separated on this very special holiday.
So, really proud to be here. It's the Year of the Dragon – tenacity and courage, all the traits that we embrace here in the State of New York. And also, continuing our pledge to protect the AAPI community from hate crimes, protecting our streets, protecting our shop owners, and making sure they know that our number one job here in the State of New York is their safety.
$30 million we're allocating this year to make sure that we can support our AAPI community. I'm really proud to be here to march with the members of that great community here today.