Corey Johnson, New York’s council speaker has announced that he is running for mayor of the city for 2021. If Johnson is successful in his campaign, he would make history as the first mayor of New York City to disclose their positive HIV status.

Johnson, who has attended many U=U events to tackle stigma regarding HIV, has already been met with support for his Corey 2021 campaign.

Additionally, Johnson has also stated that he will refuse donations from large corporations, developers and lobbyists in order to ensure that larger businesses will not have influence over his politics. The candidate has also put a cap on maximum individual donations at $250.

Johnson took to Twitter to acknowledge the support that Corey 2021 has already received:

“My team just told me we’re averaging about one contribution per minute this morning since I announced I’m considering a Mayoral run.

“My campaign isn’t taking a cent from lobbyists, real estate developers or corporate PACs, so I need you.”

THREAD: Tomorrow is the first day of October and 14 years ago this week I found out I was HIV positive. I was 22 years old and in the moment and for the days and months and even years following my doctor giving me that news I lived with shame and fear and anxiety…

— Corey Johnson (@CoreyinNYC) October 1, 2018

Prior to launching his campaign, Johnson expanded on his decision to reject donations from corporations Johnson said:

“The whole point in this is to show that no one is going to have influence. If I decide to run, if for some reason it worked out for me, no one is going to have a huge level of influence.”

He would also be the first mayor to come out as gay prior to election. Ed Koch, who served as mayor from 1978-1989 came out as gay after he retired from politics. When Koch ran for the position, he was met with homophobic smear campaigns, one of which promoted the slogan “Vote for Cuomo, not for the homo”.

Johnson has already made political history as the first openly gay council speaker for New York City. Throughout his career so far, Johnson has been a proponent of healthcare, women’s rights, the environment, criminal justice, rent regulation and homelessness prevention. In 2014, Johnson introduced legislation that removed surgical requirements for transgender New Yorkers to amend their birth certificates.