March 13, 2026
My name is Matt Connor, one of the principal members of Bravest For Choice, an organization comprised of fire service professionals that formed in 2021 to oppose the COVID-19 Vaxx mandate for public employees in New York City. In October 2021, Bravest For Choice organized one of the largest labor demonstrations in New York City History when 20,000 New Yorkers assembled in front of FDNY Headquarters and marched over the Brooklyn Bridge to the gates of City Hall in an explosion of dissent over the looming implementation of the COVID-19 Vaxx mandate, an act of civil disobedience that brought together workers from across city agencies, including teachers, law enforcement officers, sanitation workers in a resounding moment of unified opposition to this public policy, a disastrous act of hubris.
Once implemented, Bravest For Choice engaged in a multi-pronged effort to defeat the mandates that included further street activism and peaceful protest, impact litigation, legislative efforts, a prolonged social media campaign, and coalition building with the inception of New York Workers For Choice and the National Coalition of Frontline Workers. We sought to end the vaxx-mandate for all affected workers who objected to the workplace mandated injection of Emergency Use Authorized experimental biologics for myriad reasons: the denial of informed consent; the disregard for natural immunity from prior exposure and infection; the adoption of an overly narrow criteria of medical contraindications reflected in the CDC guidelines, as well as a variety of rational and prudent concerns and matters of conscience.
Among those who objected to the mandate as a matter of conscience were thousands of New York City employees who declared objections due to sincerely held religious beliefs that precluded their willingness to consent to “vaccination.” With these individuals in mind, Bravest For Choice crowdsourced funds for impact litigation and joined New Yorkers For Religious Liberty, onboarding representative plaintiffs in the proposed class action: New Yorkers For Religious Liberty vs. The City of New York. This ongoing legal effort is backed by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) on behalf of the thousands of workers who were denied their First-Amendment-guaranteed free exercise of religion as they were purged from the workforce just for standing up against the tyrannical policy. On a personal note, I objected to the vaxx-mandate for all of the aforementioned reasons including my own sincerely held religious beliefs. When I refused to submit reasonable accommodation requests for medical and religious reasons by an arbitrary deadline, I was placed on involuntary leave without pay under threat of termination after 16 years of dedicated service to the city of New York as a firefighter and fire officer in the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY).
I am writing to the Religious Liberty Commission today to call your attention to this matter, as the persecution of those who objected to the vaxx mandate on religious grounds is ongoing. We currently have several terminated members who, to this day, have not been reinstated to the fire service in New York City despite the empty promise of a “right to return” by our disgraced former mayor Eric Adams, and due to the inaction of his successor, our current mayor, Zorhan Mamdani (Please note one of our coalition partners, Michael Kane, founder of Teachers For Choice, has also submitted an open letter to the RLC detailing additional context and particulars regarding the status quo in NYC). During the course of our battle against this unconstitutional policy, Bravest For Choice member Brendan Fogarty once recited the following excerpt from the Serenity Prayer on floor of the New York City Council, during a hearing of the Committee on Civil Service and Labor: “God grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And the wisdom to know the difference.”
Given Brendan’s wise choice of words, I implore you to intervene on behalf of these persecuted fire service professionals who await reinstatement to their careers, as this impasse can indeed be transcended. In keeping with the Commission’s directive to advise the White House Faith Office and the Domestic Policy Council on steps to secure domestic religious liberty, my testimony to this ongoing violation provides a momentous opportunity: the Religious Liberty Commission has been empowered, it it so chooses, to recommend the reinstatement of all such individuals in defense of the inalienable rights of these workers who have been violated.. Bravest For Choice is in the process of drafting a policy memorandum to outline an actionable resolution to this matter via Presidential Executive Order, and we hereby request the aforementioned details and your accompanying recommendations be included in the report of the Religious Liberty Commission.. We thank you for considering this urgent matter; the careers of the faithful hang in the balance.
Respectfully submitted,
Matt Connor On behalf of Bravest For Choice
