The acting executive director of Garden State Equality, Brielle Winslow-Majette, has responded to questions about the arrest of its now former leader, how that has affected the organization, and how the LGBTQ civil rights group plans to move forward.
Winslow-Majette, who was named the acting executive director following the Nov. 21 arrest of Christian Fuscarino on child abuse-related charges, spoke to me on Dec. 31. Fuscarino, who had been the executive director since 2016, was charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child by a caretaker and two counts of simple assault after an incident with his foster child Nov. 9 at his Neptune City home in Monmouth County, according to police and court documents.
Law enforcement authorities say Fuscarino, 35, pulled the child — who was identified in the affidavit of probable cause only as a boy and whose age was redacted — out of bed, struck him with an open hand “multiple times across the face” and then pushed him into a wall several times. Fuscarino referred questions to his attorney, Mitchell Ansell, who in a statement couched the matter as being private.
NJ Advance Media first reported the allegations on Dec. 16. Fuscarino said in a social media post that he resigned that day. And according to a statement released by GSE also that day, the organization placed Fuscarino on leave “immediately” after it learned of what allegedly took place.
When exactly GSE put Fuscarino on leave — sometime between Nov. 9 and Dec. 16 — and the date when Winslow-Majette went from being deputy executive director to the acting chief remained unclear as of the publishing deadline for this article. Winslow-Majette said only that she was named acting executive director in December.
“I know that this is a hard time, and a lot of people have a lot of questions that need to be answered, but at the same time I want people to know that we’re still moving and we will continue to build trust, continue to work in the communities, continue to grow and continue to let them know that we’re here for them,” Winslow-Majette said.
Among the questions in the aftermath of the arrest becoming public that have been asked both in the news media and social media are when did GSE learn of the alleged assault, and was Fuscarino working for the organization with criminal charges pending against him.
Two state lawmakers, Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger and Assemblywoman Victoria A. Flynn, both Republicans who represent Legislative District 13 covering primarily eastern Monmouth County, released a joint statement calling for accountability and transparency. “Assaulting a child is never a private matter,” they said in the statement, published Dec. 22 by NJ Advance Media. “Based on information revealed yesterday, allegations of abuse within a foster home here in Monmouth County became known more than a month ago. The public deserves to know why it took so long for this information to come to light.”
New Jersey Monitor Editor Terrence T. McDonald in a commentary piece published Dec. 19 questioned what GSE board members knew about what allegedly occurred and when they knew it. McDonald has worked for New Jersey newspapers for 20 years and has exposed public corruption and general malfeasance at every level of government, according to a brief bio published on the Monitor’s website. He noted in his piece that GSE received at least $2.5 million in state funding in the current budget and “millions more before.”
According to GSE, Fuscarino reported to the Garden State Equality Education Fund Board of Directors. Paul Ashley is the chair. Ashley did not respond to a request made through GSE’s press office for comment. When asked for the date when GSE learned of the alleged assault, Winslow-Majette said she was deputy director at the time and did not oversee Fuscarino, so she is “unable to accurately answer that question for you.”
Asked why Fuscarino was put on leave and not fired, she responded by saying that she does not make those decisions and the organization is “not at liberty to speak” on current or former employee status for their protection.
“I am the decision-maker for the staff who are underneath me, but I am not the decision-maker for the executive director, so I cannot give you that answer,” she said, later in the interview adding that she does “not have any authority over making decisions in this situation.”
GSE in a statement Dec. 20 said that it hired a law firm to conduct a comprehensive review of the organization and to give recommendations in order to restore confidence in its actions and operations.
Asked Dec. 31 why a comprehensive review is needed and what needs to be fixed at GSE, Winslow-Majette said: “We’ve been operating for 20 years, and we felt as though it was just a good time to look at our operations. We’ve grown exponentially; we want to continue to make sure that we are serving the community the way that we need to. So, there’s nothing that’s wrong,” she said, adding that most organizations go through a period where they look at their operations and that “we’re looking to see what our trajectory for the next 20 years will be.”
To clarify, Winslow-Majette was asked if the decision to hire the firm was made in response to the issue with Fuscarino or whether GSE was going to do that anyway. “So I’m not, like I said before, [someone who] makes decisions in terms of that, so unfortunately I don’t have that answer for you, but I do know as we are looking at 2026, there were a lot of [things] in terms of strategic planning and things that we were looking at, so that could very well be the case,” she said.
Winslow-Majette was then asked about how long the review will take and if GSE would be releasing the firm’s findings to the public. “I do not know how long it will take, and I think that [whether to release the recommendations and findings publicly] will be based on the recommendation of the firm that Garden State Equality is working with,” she said.
In response to the board’s handling of the matter with Fuscarino, Daniella Mendez resigned from the board after “deep reflection,” according to a Dec. 19 online statement.
“Following an emergency meeting of the GSE board, it became clear to me that events and the board’s response exposed serious governance concerns, including lack of transparency and inadequate oversight. Information shared during and after that meeting raised concerns for me about the timeliness and completeness of information provided to board members. These issues are not procedural footnotes; they go to the heart of organizational integrity and public trust,” Mendez said in the statement.
Asked to respond to the resignation, Winslow-Majette said: “Like I said, you mentioned, we have a firm that will be looking at all of our operations and governance and protocols, so the only thing I can say is Garden State Equality … is looking forward to be healthy in the next 20 years and looking at how we continue to build and serve our communities better.”
During the interview, Winslow-Majette was also asked what it was like to work for Fuscarino. “I saw the miraculous things that he did in the community, how he brought people together, how he listened to the community and tried to create an organization that fought for lived equality,” Winslow-Majette said.
The organization’s strategic plan is one of the biggest things he talked to her about, she said, adding that he lifted up diverse voices and communities and understood the complexity of the communities GSE serves. “So to be honest with you, I feel like Christian was always looking to find new ways to make sure that we were supporting the community and we worked together to see how we could best support everybody,” she said.
“As a statewide organization, that’s a heavy lift. You know, we have 21 counties, but I think Christian did a great job, and once I came on, all we did was build” and tried to ensure the organization “supported more individuals,” she continued.
According to GSE’s website, the organization is responsible for the passage of more than 225 “pro-equality” laws. Since its founding in 2004, the organization has advocated for marriage equality, has shown up at school board meetings to defend the rights of queer students, has rallied for the rights of people who are transgender, and has built programs for queer youth, to name a few of its accomplishments.
So is Fuscarino’s arrest casting a negative light on GSE fair? “I would like to say that Garden State Equality and the community appreciate all of the work that Christian did for the community for those 10 years, but Garden State Equality’s still showing up and doing the work,” Winslow-Majette said, adding that the community at large is still showing up as well, noting a blood drive GSE was holding Dec. 31.
“The people still know that we are working for them, so what I would say to you is that Garden State Equality is still functioning and still out in the community doing work,” she said.
How does Garden State Equality plan on moving forward from here? “Garden State Equality has always had a culture of looking to the future and ensuring that, you know, we fine-tune and get the feedback from the community to figure out how we make our programs better, how we serve more communities,” where the organization is currently, “how do we get to spaces,” she said.
“I think the biggest thing that I’m going to be working on in the future is making sure that I’m in communities, I’m talking to folks, I’m getting out there and listening to them, and I think my staff, they’re still showing up every single day. They’re looking at how we can secure more advocacy wins, they’re looking at how we can diversify our programming, and they’re looking at how we can still grow signature events, so the buck doesn’t stop, the work doesn’t stop,” she said.
Winslow-Majette said she thinks the biggest thing to mention is the “federal political climate” and how the Trump administration is against the LGBTQ community. “So despite anything else, Garden State Equality is still going to be a beacon of light for the community, and we’re still going to show up and make sure that our New Jerseyans know that despite what’s happening across the country, they’re going to be safe here in Jersey.”
