POLITICS
Kristin Richardson Jordan Wants to Change Harlem
Lesbian candidate would be fi rst LGBTQ Black woman elected to Council
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
There has long been a void
of LGBTQ Black women
in political offi ce in New
York City — but some
candidates are hoping to change
that this year.
Out lesbian Kristin Richardson
Jordan, who is running to represent
the 9th Council District in
Central and East Harlem, Morningside
Heights, and the Upper
West Side, would make history as
the fi rst out LGBTQ Black woman
elected to the City Council — and
she isn’t the only out Black woman
running this year. The large slate
of LGBTQ candidates seeking offi
ce this year also includes Crystal
Hudson, who is running for City
Council Brooklyn.
Jordan is one of 13 candidates
who fi led to run against veteran
City Councilmember Bill Perkins,
Kristin Richardson Jordan is running for a seat in District 9 in Manhattan.
who fi rst served in the Council
from 1998-2005 before returning
four years ago when he won a 2017
special election.
While Jordan, 34, said she was
JESSE HERNDON
initially “disenchanted” with politics
due to corruption, she said she
later realized that this is an arena
where she could make the most
signifi cant difference.
“City Council is a place where we
could redistribute the funds from
the NYPD into the community,”
Jordan told Gay City News in an
interview. “City Council is the place
where I can do a lot of what I want
to change around housing because
a lot of that is localized.”
Jordan is a third-generation Harlemite
and credits her parents, who
worked as doctors, for helping her
understand the importance of serving
others within the community.
“If you’re an elected offi cial, you’re
meant to be a public servant,” she
said. “You’re not all that different
from a doctor because your main
goal should be how you serve and
better the community and increase
the welfare of the people.”
To date, her campaign has an
estimated balance of $157,071, following
only Mario Rosser, who has
$172,529, according to the New York
City Campaign Finance Board.
Jordan supports the full decriminalization
of sex work and,
among other issues, is placing an
emphasis on boosting funding for
COVID-19 testing and vaccination
efforts within communities of color.
Jordan is pushing for a Green
New Deal in New York City and in
NYCHA, demanding the government
dramatically reduce greenhouse
gas emissions and create
eco-friendly public housing complexes.
She believes those efforts
could potentially lower asthma
rates in Harlem.
When it comes to policing, Jordan
believes in defunding the NYPD
and refocusing funding efforts towards
other prioriies in the community.
She believes money should
be steered into areas that address
the root causes of violence.
“And decreasing our overall dependence
on incarceration, on policing
in general, and moving towards
a different system,” she said.
“We should look at things more
in terms of treatment, psychological
and emotional support… We
should just move in a direction
that is more humane.”
Much of Jordan’s work leading
up to this point stems from
her action as an organizer on the
ground. After a woman was brutally
attacked at a Harlem Liquor
store earlier this year, she created
a community buddy system to help
more than a dozen women fi nd a
safer way home.
Jordan also spoke candidly
about her experience as a survivor
of domestic violence. As an LGBTQ
Black woman, she faced discrimination
and struggled to fi nd support
from therapists. Many mental
health professionals dismissed Jordan’s
pain because she was in a relationship
with a woman, she said.
“The fi rst therapist I went to
consistently referred to my partner
with he/him pronouns,” Jordan
recalled. “Several times, I said
‘I’m a lesbian, and my partner is
female,’ but for whatever reason,
heteronormativity was lost in their
mind, and they continued to mispronoun
my partner.”
While Jordan eventually found a
therapist to help her, she said the
constant roadblocks nearly confi
rmed the abusive messages and
gaslighting from her ex-partner.
“Sometimes people assume lesbian
relationships aren’t real,” she
said. “Like somehow our relationship
wasn’t real and also the domestic
violence of it wasn’t real.”
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