Brooklyn LGBTQ Democratic Leaders Celebrate Historic Rule Change that Repeals the Democratic Party’s Gender Binary Requirement and Allow Nonbinary and TGNC People to Run for Party Office
December 30, 2020 -- Today, the Brooklyn Democratic Party voted unanimously to approve long awaited and historic changes that repeal a gender binary requirement that allowed only men and women to run for party office in Brooklyn. The Party’s rule change allows TGNCNB (transgender, gender non-conforming and non-binary) individuals to openly serve on County Committee beginning in 2022 election cycle. More background below.
A group of LGBTQ District Leaders and organizations that advocated for and led efforts to win these changes released the following statements:
Quote from Jesse Pierce, District Leader, Assembly District 52
“This change adopted by the Party is a testament to the plaintiffs who bravely brought their identities and the lack of gender inclusion to the doorstep of our Brooklyn Democratic Party. And to the members of the public who loudly shared their stories and support of the removal of the binary gender designations to County Committee participation. I celebrate this teamwork and look forward to continuing to work together to encourage and welcome everyone into our local Democratic Party, regardless of gender identity and expression. Together we are reshaping who gets a seat at the table in our local politics. As a gender non-binary human, I am excited for this new era and honored to be in coalition with you all.” said Jesse Pierce, District Leader in Assembly District 52, member of the Gender Taskforce, who uses she/hers and they/them pronouns .
Quote from Samy Nemir Olivares, District Leader, Assembly District 53
“This victorious rule change belongs to the queer community in Brooklyn, advocates, as well the brave TGNC plaintiffs who put their lives on the public eye and took on a lawsuit to open the path for everyone to run and serve regardless of their gender identity or expression. No one should be denied participation in politics for who they are or how they identify and the binary rule denied the existence of TGNC people. This was a powerful vote to open the doors and remove barriers that prevented people from all genders to have a seat --and a vote-- at the table. As a Queer Brooklynite who fought for this change, I’m very proud and thrilled we were able to take this historic step forward towards inclusion to recognize the humanity of those living beyond the gender binary and welcome their equitable participation. It should have not taken a lawsuit, a taskforce and six months to recognize that everyone deserves a seat at the table, but I’m pleased to see public education that changed hearts and minds and made this progress possible. But we can’t stop here, a seat at the table doesn’t guarantee you can speak or vote, so we need to move beyond diversity and inclusion towards empowerment and leadership.” said Samy Nemir Olivares, District Leader AD53, who was a member of the Gender Taskforce and uses he/him and they/them pronouns.
Quote from Jared Arader, President of the Lambda Independent Democrats (LID) of Brooklyn
“Today is a proud day in the history of the Brooklyn Democratic Party and for reform advocates,” said Jared Arader, President of the Lambda Independent Democrats (LID) of Brooklyn, the borough’s only LGBTQ political club and a member of the gender discrimination and inclusion task force. “But we cannot forget and erase what got us here: for nearly a century, our party systematically excluded those who did not fit in to a binary gender role. Since its inception in 1978, LID has worked to break down barriers to inclusion posed for members of our community in local politics. While we are glad to see this barrier fall, we cannot take for granted that it no longer exists - we must do the work of centering TGNCNB people in local politics and ensuring fairness and representation exists.”
Quote from Julio Peña III, District Leader, Assembly District 51
“Today is a momentous day in the Brooklyn Democratic Party as we remove a barrier to the TGNCNB community from seeking to represent their local neighborhoods,” said Julio Peña III, District Leader in Assembly District 51 who uses he and they pronouns. “As a Queer District Leader, I am grateful to the plaintiffs who were brave enough to come forward and tell their stories, it is because of them we are here today. Today is just the beginning in ensuring we not just have representation at the table, but that we are leading those tables.”
Quote from Josue Pierre, District Leader, Assembly District 42
“Progress doesn’t happen on its own and we have to measure it and know when it’s time to take new actions. The old rules were in place to ensure that women were fully participating in our democratic process. As we have made progress and seen greater participation, the existing rule became a glass ceiling and we now acknowledge these old rules have created barriers for the People of the trans experience, non-binary, and gender non conforming people. By removing this mandatory requirement, we are now moving towards yet a new frontier of inclusion in the democratic process for all Brooklynites. We’re thankful for all those who brought forth testimony and passionately fought for these rights.”
Collective statement from plaintiffs of the lawsuit on Gender Binary Requirement
This spring, we sued the Kings County Democratic Committee because the Board of Elections denied us access to the June 23 Democratic Primary ballot for not declaring our genders as “male” or “female”. As a group, we identify across a range of genders, often referred to as transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary (TGNCNB). The six of us represent only a small part of a larger community and a broader struggle. The majority of us lean more masculine in our identities. Only one of us is a person of color. The whiteness and patriarchy in our group is a major problem and it shows how participation in the political process and legal action are enormous privileges. The ability to sue the Democratic Party is an enormous privilege. As one plaintiff eloquently put it “It is my fear that if a group of privileged folks such as ourselves are denied these rights how many of the Black, Latinx and Indigenous TGNCNB people of Brooklyn will continue to be purposely excluded from participating in a government that affects their lives and environment”.
TGNCNB people have always existed in Brooklyn, the gender binary requirement was as discriminatory in the 1930s as it is now. Today we do not celebrate progress, we celebrate righting a century-old wrong. We hope all Brooklyn communities use this moment to listen, to connect, and to work to develop more gender-affirming and gender-inclusive practices in the local Democratic Party.”
Support from Brooklyn Elected Officials
This measure was also supported by Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez and State Senator Julia Salazar, who submitted public testimony for the public forums of the Gender Taskforce on December 7 and 8. Openly LGBTQ City Council Candidate Carlos Menchaca and Mayoral Candidate Dianne Morales both expressed their support to the full repeal in their social media accounts.
Quote from Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez
"Limiting our political officials to those who conform to binary gender norms robs our communities of equal and full representation. That's why I am proud to support the implementation of Proposal 6, which would end the gender category requirement and give our transgender, genderqueer, genderfluid, and non-binary candidates the opportunities they deserve to serve as active members of the Brooklyn Democratic Party."
Quote from State Senator Julia Salazar
"All politics are local, and the County Committee is as local as it gets for us here in Brooklyn. This is exactly why we cannot allow for gender discrimination to continuously occur in organizing and political spaces that are so close to home. In late April I signed on to a letter supporting the seven non-binary, genderfluid, genderqueer, and transgender candidates that ran for County Committee but were disqualified, and today I will stand by and support any and all members of the LGBTQ+ community that have been unfairly treated in County Committee. I fully support the implementation of proposal 6 which would eliminate any reference to any gender category allowing for true equality in our Democratic Party, and I hope that this can be the start of a new and more inclusive beginning for local politics in our borough."
BACKGROUND
The rule change focused on the composition of the County Committee, the lowest level in the party’s structure of people representing their block in the community at the Democratic Party. The party rule stems from the New York State Constitution, which requires the party to provide “equal representation of the sexes” if it wishes to adopt any gender quota. The Brooklyn Democratic Party was the only borough that adopted such an option.
The rule change happened after months of advocacy, litigation, and a gender taskforce that included a public forum. After the June 2020 Democratic primaries, a group of 6 TGNCNB plaintiffs sued the Brooklyn Democratic Party and the Board of Elections for being denied the opportunity to serve as County Committee members because of their gender. In August, the lawsuit, alongside advocacy from Brooklyn leaders, pushed the party’s leadership to create a task force to evaluate the issue. In December, the taskforce held two public forums, in which hundreds of Brooklynites submitted public comments the vast majority of them in support of the full repeal. After six months of deliberation, the task force voted on and published its recommendation in December 2020, recommending a full repeal of the gender binary and a revision of the gendered language in the rules. Today, the Executive Committee voted to adopt the taskforce's recommendation, repealing gender binary requirements for County Committee members.
In 2019, The New York State Democratic Party passed a pioneering rule change that would allow for gender inclusion at the New York State Committee, thanks to the advocacy of Emilia Decaudin, the first openly trans State Committee member. Brooklyn’s rule change follows in the steps of the NYSDP and positions New York as a pioneer in TGNC inclusion nationwide.
However, this change did not happen without controversy. The process was complicated and put into question numerous times. For example, The Gender Task Force was formed without input of LGBTQ-identified District Leaders and community members and since the beginning was accused of lacking TGNCNB representation. Further, the task force’s initial recommendation to create four at-large gender neutral seats was a ruse to mask a blatant consolidation of power by the Party’s Executive leadership - the recommendation, an interim measure designed to allow TGNCNB people to serve before the 2022 election, contained a poison pill stripping the County Committee of its power to fill vacant seats - a move that has since been overturned by the courts. Further, at times, the task force fostered an unsafe and transphobic environment.
While we celebrate the end result of the removal of binary gender requirements from these seats, the process getting here should not have been this difficult and was harmful to many. As we move forward with these changes, it is our hope that future efforts at inclusion are more thoughtful and better executed centering the most impacted and with the empowerment of underserved communities at the forefront of any action and positive end result.
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CONTACT: Samy Nemir Olivares, samy@samy.nyc