No Non-Binary Role in Bklyn Dems’ Gender Regs Study
Party chair appoints task force with queer reps, but leaves out policy challengers
BY MATT TRACY
The Brooklyn Democratic
Party boss has launched
a task force that could
recommend striking
down rules that limit the amount
of women and exclude non-binary
candidates from serving in local
party posts, but that task force,
though it has strong queer representation,
lacks transgender or
non-binary members.
Party chair Rodneyse Bichotte, a
state assemblymember who represents
Flatbush, East Flatbush, and
Midwood, on August 6 unveiled the
task force, which includes Lambda
Independent Democrats of Brooklyn
president Jared Arader, Lisa
Fane, a former LID board member,
as well as four local Democratic
district leaders elected as out queer
candidates — Josue Pierre, Julio
Peña III, Jesse Pierce, and Samy
Nemir-Olivares. Other members
of the task force are former State
Assemblymember Annette M. Robinson,
who continues to serve as a
district leader, City Council candidate
Darma Diaz, and district
leaders Nancy Tong, Edu Hermelyn,
Josh Skaller, and Douglas M.
Schneider.
The task force was created a little
more than three months after
a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge
tossed a lawsuit lodged by six local
candidates who targeted the
Brooklyn Democratic Party for
maintaining binary gender rules
that call for the election of one
man and one woman to serve on
the county committee as Assembly
district leaders. Those rules prevent
non-binary candidates from
participating — unless they are
willing to designate a gender identity
at odds with their true identity
— and limits the amount of
women who can serve, despite the
fact that women now participate at
greater proportions than men at
the local level in Brooklyn politics.
The one man/ one woman scheme
was originally adopted to allow
greater participation by women in
local politics when traditional voting
patterns limited the role they
The task force created by Brooklyn Democratic Party chair Rodneyse Bichotte features no transgender
or non-binary members.
could play.
“As a new county chair my fi rst
priority is to expand voting rights
and the ability for all to participate
in our democracy and run for offi
ce, and that very much includes
individuals in Brooklyn regardless
of identifi cation as binary — male
or female, non-binary, gender fl uid,
genderqueer, or transgender,” Bichotte
said in a written statement
announcing the task force.
In spite of that statement, the
composition of the task force is notable
for the lack of of non-binary
or transgender members.
“Well, the chair, Ms. Bichotte,
was trying to balance as diverse
representation as possible, yet being
limited in a practical sense to
a manageable number of people,”
Aaron D. Maslow, an election law
attorney chairing the task force,
said when asked by Gay City News
about the lack of representation. “If
you have some live meetings, you
can get more people in there, but
this is going to be on Zoom.”
Derek Gaskill, one of the plaintiffs
involved in the lawsuit dismissed
earlier this year, said he
was not contacted when the task
force was created.
“I was a little surprised when I
heard about it,” Gaskill told Gay
City News on August 7. “I know
TWITTER/ @AMBICHOTTE
COURTESY OF DEREK GASKILL
Derek Gaskill was a plaintiff in a suit challenging
outdated gender rules governing county committee/
district leader candidates, but was never
asked to join a task force aimed at reforming
those rules.
some of the other plaintiffs didn’t
hear of it either.”
Gaskill’s own bid for county
committee was thwarted when his
petition was invalidated after he
did not declare a binary gender.
“I’m fortunate that we elected
district leaders who are on it and
who will represent us and understand
POLITICS
our positions and experiences,
but unfortunately there are no
trans or non-binary people in the
task force,” he said.
The judge who dismissed the
suit on which which Gaskill was
a plaintiff did not make a decision
on the merits of the gender parity
itself, ruling instead that procedural
issues and timing were factors
behind his action. The judge
suggested that the party could act
to change its rules at its September
meeting.
Nemir-Olivares told Gay City
News that the lawsuit represented
the beginning of the effort to
change the rules and he is optimistic
that action will be taken
to realign the rules with current
understanding of society’s gender
fl uidity.
“It would be better if we had the
voices of the non-binary or trans
people who are most impacted by
these rules,” he said. “I’m hopeful
the leadership of the Democratic
Party expands the task force in the
coming weeks.”
He added, “I hope the rules are
at least changed before the next
election.”
Arader also voiced confi dence
that the rules will eventually be
changed, saying he is “very happy
and excited the chair wants to address
this situation.”
Maslow explained that the task
force will meet for the fi rst time
during the second week of August.
“We’ll invite recommendations of
people outside the task force and
hope to come up with something to
propose to the county committee
or the executive committee of the
Brooklyn Democratic Party in the
fall,” he said.
While Gaskill believes members
of the task force will have the right
intentions, he stressed that it still
does not make up for the exclusion
of the very demographic that the
task force will be discussing.
“No recommendation should
be provided without the full and
direct participation of trans and
non-binary people,” he said.
Bichotte did not respond to a request
for comment.
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