N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul is under fire by the Italian American community following a series of alarming decisions. Gov. Hochul walked in the Columbus Day parade on the morning of Oct. 11, then, hours later, she attempted to cancel the navigator’s namesake holiday by proclaiming Oct. 11 as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. After a public outcry, she amended the proclamation, stating that Columbus Day would still be celebrated on the second Monday of October in New York.

Then, she sparked another uproar by dissolving the state’s Italian American Affairs office (no other ethnic offices were cut). The New York Commission for Social Justice is the anti-defamation arm of the New York Grand Lodge, Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America; and the Commission has urgently requested a meeting with the governor to petition for the reinstatement of the IA Affairs office.