Mary Audrey Gallagher (standing, center right) and an unidentified woman hold up a banner for the Queens chapter of PFLAG. Courtesy of the Daniel Dromm Collection at the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives, by permission of Daniel Dromm.
Photo by David Engelman, May 2025
Councilman Daniel Dromm and his mother, Mary Audrey Gallagher. Photo courtesy of Daniel Dromm.
Mary Gallagher (1932 - 2018) was an early advocate for the LGBTQ community and an educator in Queens. She was a founding member of PFLAG/Queens, a support, education and advocacy group for parents, families and friends of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and served as its Queens Hospitality Chairperson. Gallagher was also a public school teacher for many years and later opened a nursery school and served as administrator of several daycare centers in New York City.
O'Reilly, Anthony, “Mary Audrey Gallagher, Dromm's mother and LGBTQ advocate, dies at 85,” Queens Chronicle, January 8, 2018.
“Mary Audrey Gallagher Way Unveiled,” Queens Gazette, August 29, 2018.