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P E R S P E C T I V E : L e t t e r F r o m t h e E d i t o r
Overdue Diversity for
Council’s LGBT Caucus
The six incoming members of the LGBT Caucus will take offi ce in January.
BY MATT TRACY
The New York City Council’s
LGBT Caucus is fi nally
getting an infl ux of muchneeded
diversity in the new
year, capping off an four-year stretch
during which the only out members
of the city’s lawmaking body were
men — and a majority of them white
men.
The new LGBT Caucus, which will
jump from four members to six, will
bring historic representation to the
city: Manhattan’s Kristin Richardson
Jordan and Brooklyn’s Crystal Hudson
will be the fi rst out LGBTQ Black
women on the Council, while Queens’
Tiffany Cabán and Lynn Schulman
are going to be the fi rst out LGBTQ
women from their borough to serve as
city lawmakers. Chi Ossé, Hudson’s
district neighbor, will be the fi rst out
LGBTQ Black councilmember to represent
Brooklyn.
The appetite for change was evident
during the years leading up to
the 2021 City Council elections. Dozens
of aspiring LGBTQ leaders stood
on the steps of City Hall in 2019 to
roll out an initiative aimed at boosting
representation and maintaining
LGBTQ voices at a time when
every member of the LGBT Caucus
faced term limits. Even before the
transformational protest movement
against police brutality and racism
last year, a new wave of activism
had emerged — including in 2019
when a fresh, queer-led push to
decriminalize sex work bloomed in
New York City.
By the following year, the nationwide
protests served as a turning
point for many candidates, including
Ossé, who said he decided to run after
realizing “that protest could not be
our only strategy in order to achieve
change in this country.”
The six incoming members of the
LGBT Caucus, facing the pressure to
keep or expand LGBTQ voices, did
not just increase the number of out
LGBTQ councilmembers heading
MATT TRACY
into next year. The election victories
were even more momentous because
so many barriers were shattered at
once — and by multiple candidates
at the same time. That should not be
overlooked.
The victories could also be a sign
that the long-past-due representation
could continue to reach new
heights in the near future. The clean
sweep for all six candidates followed
a primary campaign season during
which even more diversity was
brought to the campaign trail. Out
non-binary candidate Marti Allen-
Cummings of Manhattan and out
transgender candidate Elisa Crespo
of the Bronx mounted admirable
campaigns for city offi ce earlier this
year and brought transgender and
non-binary representation to the
fore.
The changing of the guard at the
LGBT Caucus punctuates the need
for councilmembers to refl ect the diversity
of the people they serve — and
our city is better off for it.
NOVEMBER 4 - NOVEMBER 17, 2 18 021 | GayCityNews.com
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