POLITICS
Josue Pierre Wants to Keep It Local
Gay district leader aims for City Council in Brooklyn
BY MATT TRACY
Nearly two years ago,
out gay District Leader
Josue Pierre confronted
the status quo: He was
threatening to unseat a longtime
incumbent, State Senator Kevin
Parker, in Brooklyn’s 20th District
— and it was clear he faced
an uphill battle in a quest to topple
a lawmaker who had been in offi ce
for close to two decades.
Pierre eventually nixed that
campaign and set his sights on the
City Council, where he embarked
on a bid to run for the soon-tobe
open seat in the 40th District,
which includes Crown Heights,
East Flatbush, Flatbush, Kensington,
Midwood, Prospect Park, and
Prospect Lefferts Gardens.
“I felt that Albany was a place
to make change, but I also understood
the City Council was a place
to make local change,” Pierre said
in a recent interview with Gay City
News.
Pierre does bring local experience
to the race. He’s been elected
multiple times as a district leader
in the 42nd Assembly District
— along with his cousin, Brooklyn
Democratic Party boss Rodneyse
Bichotte — and he previously
chaired Community Board
17’s Land Use Committee. He is
also active in local groups, including
LGBTQ political clubs like the
Lambda Independent Democrats
of Brooklyn, among others.
Pierre is one of more than a
dozen candidates who signed up
to compete in the race to replace
term-limited Councilmember Mathieu
Eugene, who is the fi rst Haitian
born councilmember in the
city. Pierre also hails from Haiti,
though his family moved to Flatbush
when he was a young child
— and he has lived in the neighborhood
ever since.
If Pierre gets elected, he would
be the fi rst out LGBTQ Black councilmember
from Brooklyn and only
the second out councilmember in
the borough’s history following
District 38’s Carlos Menchaca, who
is term-limited and leaving offi ce
District Leader Josue PIerre is running for City Council in Brooklyn.
in less than a year. Out gay State
Senator Jabari Brisport made history
last year in the nearby 21st
Senate District, where he became
the fi rst out LGBTQ Black state
lawmaker in New York.
Pierre, who emphasized housing
issues during his State Senate bid,
is again focusing on housing in his
City Council campaign. It is an
area that is familiar to him given
his past work in the comptroller’s
offi ce under Scott Stringer, where
he utilized New York City pension
funds to boost affordable housing,
and his stint on the board of the
Stonewall Community Development
Corporation, which focuses
on creating safe and affordable
housing for the city’s LGBTQ seniors.
Citing a key model of success,
Pierre highlighted the LGBTQ-inclusive
senior living development
in Fort Greene known as Stonewall
House, which opened in late
2019. At the time that development
opened, 77 percent of residents
were people of color and 54 of the
145 units were reserved for NYCHA
residents.
“Black LGBTQ people are fi rst
and foremost Black,” Pierre said.
“We experience all the prejudices,
all of the lack of resources that
every other Black person experiences,
and on top of that, we have
to deal with the prejudices and the
lack of access to resources that LGBTQ
people face in general. I think
the success of Stonewall House
can be replicated, but I also think
the success of that development is
a strategy and opportunity we can
use for the greater Black community,
as well, to build more real affordable
housing.”
JOSUE PIERRE
Pierre’s other campaign priorities
include pushing for funding of
social programs, schools, and other
areas at a time when New Yorkers
have been affected by the coronavirus
pandemic. The next city
budget, he said, should be one that
is “not focused on cuts but having
the revenue necessary to keep our
city going strong.”
Pierre is voicing support for
funding for youth programs such
as the NYC Unity Works Project,
which succumbed to budget cuts
last year. That initiative provides
contracts to non-profi ts to help
queer homeless youth gain employment
or education.
“I will be one of the main people
pitching to restore that program
➤ PIERRE, continued on p.15
April 22 - May 5,14 2021 | GayCityNews.com
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