Cuomo’s legal counsel to head major LGBTQ-rights group

NEW YORK (AP) — Alphonso David, a civil rights lawyer who has been serving as chief counsel to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was named Tuesday as the new president of the largest LGBTQ-rights organization in the U.S.

Forty-eight-year-old David is the first African American to lead the Human Rights Campaign since its founding in 1980. He becomes its seventh president, succeeding Chad Griffin, who has held the post since 2012.

David was appointed as Cuomo’s chief counsel in 2015, and before that served as New York’s Counsel for Civil Rights. He played key roles in the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York in 2011, banning so-called conversion therapy for LGBTQ minors and establishing non-discrimination protections for transgender New Yorkers.