Stonewall Picks Salmon, Clarke, LGBTQ Incumbents
For Velmanette Montgomery’s open Brooklyn State Senate seat, gay candidate rejected
BY MATT TRACY
The Stonewall Democratic
Club of New York City
on April 22 endorsed
Brooklyn Congressmember
Yvette Clarke in her reelection
bid and State Senate candidate
Jason Salmon in his quest
to capture the open seat held by
his former boss, Velmanette Montgomery,
who is retiring after more
than three decades in offi ce.
The competitive Democratic primary
races hold their own implications
for the LGBTQ community:
One of Clarke’s opponents in the
Ninth Congressional District is anti
LGBTQ Brooklyn Councilmember
Chaim Deutsch, while Salmon
is facing out gay candidate Jabari
Brisport in the 25th State Senate
District. Salmon and Brisport both
support efforts to comprehensively
decriminalize sex work.
Stonewall backed those candidates
as part of a whopping fi vehour
long virtual endorsement
meeting during which the club
heard from dozens of pols aiming
to gain the support of the LGBTQ
political community ahead of the
June 23 Democratic primary. The
club also backed a slate of incumbent
out LGBTQ candidates seeking
re-election, including State
Senator Brad Hoylman and Assemblymembers
Deborah Glick
and Daniel O’Donnell, all of whom
represent constituents in Manhattan.
Notably, the LGBTQ candidates
for State Legislature who submitted
questionnaires — Brisport,
Hoylman, and O’Donnell — all expressed
support for the Stop Violence
in the Sex Trades Act, which
is a full sex work decriminalization
bill that was fi rst introduced in
June of last year. The club did not
receive a questionnaire response
from Glick and based its endorsement
on a past election cycle’s response.
Genesis Aquino, a queer candidate
who is challenging Assemblymember
Feliz Ortiz in the the
51st District in Brooklyn, also did
not submit a questionnaire to the
Jason Salmon, seen here at a Lambda Independent Democrats meeting earlier this year, has made a
clean sweep of LGBTQ political organizations in his race to succeed Brooklyn State Senator Velmanette
Montgomery, despite the presence in the race of an out gay candidate.
club, nor did Ortiz, who unsuccessfully
challenged out gay City
Councilmember Carlos Menchaca
in 2017. Stonewall voted to go with
Katherine Walsh, another Ortiz
challenger who did fi le a response.
One key takeaway of the evening
was which queer candidates the
club opted not to endorse. Brisport,
a progressive, Democratic Socialists
of America-backed schoolteacher
who unsuccessfully challenged
Brooklyn Councilmember
Laurie Cumbo in 2017, continued
his string of snubs from LGBTQ
political clubs that have instead
decided to support Salmon. The
Jim Owles Liberal Democratic
Club and the Lambda Independent
Democrats of Brooklyn (LID) also
endorsed Salmon over Brisport in
the race for Montgomery’s 25th
Senate District seat — a contest
that also includes Assemblymember
Tremaine Wright.
By now, Salmon has secured
a strong base of support across
queer political clubs as well as
from Equality New York, a statewide
LGBTQ coalition that has a
political action committee.
When asked about the growing
number of queer groups backing
his campaign, Salmon said in an
interview with Gay City News that
he is “really honored” — and he attributes
that support to a combination
of factors: He said he has always
been an ally, including when
MATT TRACY
he worked in Montgomery’s offi ce,
but he also pointed to the intersectional
nature of his campaign,
which he said is centered on intertwined
themes of inclusion, racial
equality, and police accountability,
among other justice-related initiatives.
“For me, I think people across
the board are just attracted to the
campaign because it brings so
many different types of people that
have never sat at the table together
before,” Salmon said. “My campaign
has formerly incarcerated
people, queer people, healthcare
professionals, teachers, young
people, older people — it’s really a
multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multigenerational
movement.”
Stonewall’s new president, Brian
Romero, touted Salmon as a community
leader who is dedicated to
advancing racial, social, and economic
justice.
“Jason’s previous experience in
government and as an activist who
has built a grassroots coalition
makes him exemplary,” Romero
said in a written statement. “We
look forward to working with now
and when he is elected senator to
advance a bold vision for our most
vulnerable queer and trans siblings.”
Wright did not even reach out
to Stonewall for consideration following
a contentious showing at
an LID endorsement meeting.
POLITICS
She was grilled by LID’s members
about her refusal to embrace full
sex work decriminalization, and
members ultimately decided to endorse
Salmon, marking one of the
fi rst signs that the local political
LGBTQ community was beginning
to rally around the former Montgomery
aide.
Meanwhile, in the Ninth Congressional
District primary contest,
Clarke landed the club’s endorsement
after she was rejected
by LID, which threw its support behind
left-leaning challenger Adem
Bunkeddeko, who also mounted a
primary race against her in 2018.
Both Clarke and Bunkeddeko have
delivered fundraising emails to
supporters highlighting Gay City
News’ reporting on Deutsch’s long
history of homophobia.
The club’s congressional endorsements,
aside from that for
Clarke, came with little fanfare.
Members voted to endorse every
incumbent member of the House
— after having previously endorsed
out gay Bronx City Councilmember
Ritchie Torres for open
seat being vacated by Congressmember
José Serrano. Eliot Engel,
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Carolyn
Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, and Nydia
Velázquez responded to the club’s
questionnaire, which asked if candidates
support the “decriminalization
of sex trade related offenses
in New York that harm people who
do sexual labor by choice, circumstance,
or coercion.” All responded
yes.
Incumbents Clarke, Hakeem Jeffries,
Grace Meng, Gregory Meeks,
and Tom Suozzi did not respond to
the questionnaire. Clarke, in response
to LID’s candidate questionnaire
this year, wrote, “Opening up
sex work to a market-based regulatory
framework would streamline
the industry improving the economic
realities of all participants
while also allowing them to seem
the protection of the state. Giving
workers access to service and protection
of police limits their exposure
to dangerous pimps, mitigates
the risk of assault, and eliminates
the risk of imprisonment.”
GayCityNews.com | May 7 - May 20, 2020 3
/GayCityNews.com
