POLITICS
Montgomery Ex-Aide Wins LID Nod to Replace Her
In State Senate race, Assembly’Tremaine Wright hobbled over sex work decrim
BY MATT TRACY
During an endorsement meeting that
featured an out gay candidate and a
testy exchange with a state assemblymember
about sex work decriminalization,
the Lambda Independent Democrats
of Brooklyn (LID) opted to throw their support
behind a former aide to outgoing State Senator
Velmanette Montgomery ahead of the June 23
Democratic primary race to replace her in the
25th District.
Jason Salmon, who spent nearly three years
as a community liaison under Montgomery,
landed the club’s endorsement at the meeting
at Crystal Lake, a bar in Williamsburg. The
club also endorsed Congressmember Carolyn
Maloney, who represents portions of Manhattan,
Queens, and Brooklyn, as well as Brooklyn
Assemblymember Joe Lentol and district leader
candidate Kristina Naplatarski, who is aiming
to represent the 50th Assembly District.
Salmon previously won endorsement from
the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, another
LGBTQ group.
The signifi cant issue that emerged at least in
the race for the 25th Senate District was sex
work. Assemblymember Tremaine Wright, a
candidate in that race, was grilled about the issue
after reports emerged late last year that she
and State Senator Liz Krueger plan to propose
a limited decriminalization bill that would gut
penalties only for sex workers themselves but
not for their clients or those facilitating their sex
work. DecrimNY, the local coalition working to
decriminalize sex work, has long opposed what
it sees as half-measures — often billed as the
Nordic Model or the Equality Model — insisting
that full decriminalization is the best way
to reduce stigma facing sex workers, lower the
risk of human traffi cking, and give the workers
more autonomy and personal safety in carrying
out their business.
Among multiple questions asked of Wright included
why she did not sign on as a co-sponsor
to a bill vacating convictions for sex traffi cking
victims despite more than three-dozen of her
Assembly colleagues doing so. She defended her
posture on that measure, pointing out that she
voted for it last June.
“There are a thousand bills, so, no, I am not
on every bill that I support or every bill I voted
for,” she said.
While Wright prefaced her points about decriminalization
by stressing the importance
of aiding sex workers with social support and
healthcare, she also waded into deep water,
saying that with full decriminalization cops
would no longer “have any interest to go into
MATT TRACY
Jason Salmon, a former aide to State Senator Velmanette
Montgomery, won the endorsement of the Lambda Independent
Democrats of Brooklyn to replace her.
those spaces to seek those people out who are
being harmed.”
DecrimNY advocates have repeatedly countered
that argument by saying that their approach
would allow for greater law enforcement
effectiveness in combatting traffi cking.
But Wright insisted, “We’re very concerned
about the idea of having just a legalized system
where we would anticipate that it would be quite
common that those who we want to protect are
actually those who are being exploited.”
Advocates on the other side have made clear
that they only want decriminalization — not legalization.
Last year, Gay City News reported that Wright
and Krueger gathered with French and Swedish
offi cials to discuss “how to advance the Equality
Model at NY state level,” according to a tweet
from France’s consul general Anne-Claire Legendre,
sparking fear at DecrimNY that an alternative
decriminalization effort would compete
with its legislative priorities. At the LID meeting,
Wright invoked those two nations, saying,
“We do think that France is more of a model
than Sweden and we are also trying to fi nd out
more details about how that operates,” though
she did not elaborate.
Wright did, however, go on to say, “Very few
of those who are in sex work tell me that their
heart’s desire is to be and to stay in it.”
Left unspoken was the economic necessity
many sex workers face without other employment
opportunities.
The testy exchange about sex work strongly
foreshadowed the likelihood that Wright would
leave the bar without the endorsement, meaning
the club would have two remaining options,
Salmon and Jabari Brisport, who both support
the comprehensive sex work decriminalization
bill introduced in the State Legislature
last year. The three candidates agree on the effort
to repeal a “Walking While Trans” loitering
law that has been used to target transgender
women of color generally as well as sex workers
specifi cally.
Brisport, a public school teacher who spoke
at length to Gay City News earlier in February,
told members that he hopes to become the fi rst
queer person of color to sit in the State Senate
and presented his campaign as one inspired by
intersectionality.
“When I’m fi ghting for housing justice, I’m
fi ghting for all the queer youth who are tossed
out in the cold,” he said. “When I’m fi ghting for
the New York Health Act, I’m fi ghting for all the
people in our community who are HIV-positive
or can’t get the medication they need, for members
who can’t get access to PrEP or access to
hormones they need to transition. When I’m
fi ghting for decarceration, I’m fi ghting for trans
women of color and their right to exist and not
get harassed by police.”
He added, “I’m fi ghting for Layleen Polanco
because cash bail should never have been a
thing. Solitary confi nement should never have
been a thing.”
Polanco, a trans woman of color, died after
suffering an epileptic seizure while in “restrictive
housing” on Rikers Island last June.
Salmon was the fi nal candidate to speak —
and his experience working for Montgomery
may have been a critical factor in wooing members
searching for an alternative to Wright, who
has twice won election to the Assembly.
Salmon, who is the son of an African-American
father and a Jewish mother and has volunteered
with Jews for Racial and Economic
Justice, vowed to be an advocate for police accountability
but also subtly emphasized his experience
as a political insider.
The reason he is not taking real estate or
corporate donations, he said, is because “I’ve
actually been at the table where I’ve seen private
interest money infl uence” projects in the
borough.
In listing his credentials on police accountability,
Salmon noted that he worked on helping
pass the city’s Right to Know Act, a package of
police reform bills that nevertheless faced criticism
from some Council progressives including
Brooklyn’s Brad Lander and Jumaane Williams,
now the public advocate, and Queens’ Donovan
Richards, who said the measures did not go far
enough in putting a check on law enforcement.
Following the meeting, LID’s president, Jared
Arader, argued that all the candidates who ap-
➤ JASON SALMON, continued on p.17
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