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Garden State Equality — the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization whose executive director resigned this week after he was charged with assault and child endangerment after a November incident — has received more than $6 million in state funding in recent years, with $2.5 million more earmarked in the current state budget.
Garden State Equality has received special line-item allocations in the New Jersey’s annual budgets dating back to 2021.
Its former executive director, Christian Fuscarino, had a high profile in New Jersey Democratic Party circles.
As leader of Garden State Equality, Fuscarino worked to elect Gov. Phil Murphy. Fuscarino’s social media accounts display photos of him with a who’s-who of New Jersey political power players. The organization’s Pride event last spring was a campaign trail stop for several 2025 Democratic hopefuls — just days before the primary.
How much state funding has Garden State Equality received?
New Jersey taxpayers’ dollars allocated to Garden State Equality on Fuscarino’s watch — amounting to $6 million so far, with $2.5 million appropriated in the state budget approved in June — were to be used to create safe spaces or provide support for neglected or abused youth.
Mahen Gunaratna, Murphy’s communications director, referred questions about what the funding was for, why the program was selected and if Fuscarino appealed to Murphy about the program to the state’s Treasury Department. Treasury officials referred questions other agencies.
Garden State Equality’s communications manager, Aedy Miller, said in a statement that from 2021 through June of 2025, the organization has “served more than 1,500 youth and their families through programming in Understanding NEAR: Building Self-Healing Communities curriculum.”
“Since Brielle Winslow-Majette joined Garden State Equality as Deputy Director in 2022, she has expanded the reach of our youth programming to include summer camp, youth leadership, book clubs, and college programs based on her decade-plus expertise in youth program development,” Miller said. “Garden State Equality will continue to serve and advocate for all LGBTQ+ people in New Jersey including LGBTQ+ youth.”
The first funding, distributed in the state’s fiscal year 2022 budget, which ran from July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022, was a noncompetitive grant.
During the grant process, Fuscarino told the Department of Child and Family Services that the money would be used to help physically and mentally abused children.
The contract, which Fuscarino signed, notes that the grant would be used to fund a program for children with “exposure to neglect, abuse (physical, sexual, or emotional), violence, parental separation, substance misuse, incarceration, violence, and mental illness; as well as social factors such as economic hardship, homelessness, and discrimination during childhood are Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs.”
“As the number of ACEs increases, the risk for mental and physical health problems (depression, intimate partner violence, risky sexual behavior, suicide, substance abuse, and smoking-related illness) also increases,” the contract notes. “Approximately one-third of all mental disorders worldwide are attributable to exposure to adverse childhood experiences.”
It went on to explain that analysis shows that physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, parental incarceration, and family history of suicidality each increased the for suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in adulthood. The accumulation of ACEs increased the odds of suicide ideation and attempts.
Fuscarino’s contract also highlights that the CDC reported preventing ACEs could have reduced the number of adults with depression by as much as 44%.
That first grant was worth $250,000 and has varied to as high as $2.5 million per individual grant.
They have been included in each budget as special line items through the Department of Children and Families or the Department of Community Affairs and have been referred to in state budgets as “Childhood Resiliency Initiatives.”
Fuscarino, 35, served as the executive director of Garden State Equality, the largest LGBTQ+ organization in New Jersey, from 2016 until his resignation this week.
He is accused of physically abusing a foster child in his care, according to police and court records. Fuscarino was charged second-degree endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of simple assault at his Neptune City home on Nov. 9, according to an affidavit of probable cause provided by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office to theAsbury Park Press on Dec. 16.
Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com
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