POLITICS
Gay Community Leader Shakes Up Bklyn Council Race
Terrance Knox enters a crowded competition that already has two LGBTQ candidates
BY MATT TRACY
The tipping point for Terrance
Knox came in late
May, just days after the
police murder of George
Floyd in Minneapolis.
Knox descended on Brooklyn’s
Barclays Center for one of the early
protests that laid the groundwork
for a nationwide movement targeting
police brutality and racial injustice.
Like at many other demonstrations
this year, the NYPD spun
out of control, beating protesters
with batons and physically shoving
them to the ground, Knox recalled.
“I jumped in to try to save someone
and I looked over at a police
offi cer and asked what was going
on,” Knox said. “I said, ‘Why are
you doing that?’” The offi cer replied,
“She threw water on me.”
That was the moment Knox
decided he would enter the race
for City Council in Brooklyn’s
District 35, which encompasses
Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Crown
Heights, Prospect Heights, and
Bedford Stuyvesant — and includes
the Barclays facility.
Knox, an out gay candidate who
has served in multiple leadership
posts in his neighborhood and in
the queer community, is diving
into a race featuring two other LGBTQ
candidates: former Deputy
Public Advocate Crystal Hudson,
who would be the fi rst out LGBTQ
Black woman elected to the City
Council, and Alejandra Caraballo,
an attorney and local community
board member who is vying to become
the fi rst out trans city lawmaker.
Knox’s ties to the local community
include having served on
Brooklyn Community Board 2, on
the board of the Brooklyn Community
Pride Center, and on Brooklyn
Hospital Center’s community advisory
board. He is also a former copresident
of the Lambda Independent
Democrats of Brooklyn (LID),
a queer political group where he
has also served on the board.
Knox is currently a consultant
working with “anyone who’s building
Terrance Knox outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall.
anything” to help them proceed
in accordance with environmental
regulations and with the goal of
either carbon neutrality or carbon
negativity.
A resident of the district for nearly
two decades, Knox said he has
witnessed a great deal of change
— but that includes what he described
as “stagnation” for working
class and low-income residents. He
has had a front-row seat throughout
many pivotal moments in the
district over the years.
Knox has not been afraid to
speak up when he feels it is necessary.
As the Brooklyn Community
Pride Center worked on securing a
new location at the Bedford-Union
Armory in Crown Heights, he
COURTESY OF TERRANCE KNOX
wasn’t satisfi ed with what he saw
unfolding.
“That project was less than ideal,”
Knox said. “It was a matter of
developers not putting their best
foot forward and not being held to
account by current Councilmember
Laurie Cumbo and Hudson,
and that’s what they do.”
Editor’s note: After this story
was published, Hudson’s team contended
that she was not involved
in the process of the project at the
Bedford-Union Armory. In response,
Knox emphasized that the process
extended over a number of years.
Knox recalled angering some
individuals during a community
board meeting reviewing the project
when he spoke his mind about
his concerns even as he also acknowledged
positives about the
Center’s expansion plan.
“I wanted to say the developers
did not come to you and ask you
what your needs are,” Knox said.
“It’s been forced upon you and you
need to renegotiate… People felt
they had been ignored and dismissed.”
The Brooklyn Community Pride
Center and developers at BFC
Partners ultimately announced a
30-year lease on the organization’s
new headquarters in February,
just weeks before the coronavirus
pandemic hit.
Knox’s attitude on that matter
was not unlike his feelings about
other issues that have arisen in his
district. He feels that elected offi -
cials have settled for less time and
time again.
“What bothers me is we know
what we need to do, but people are
kowtowing to their donors or their
next job,” he said. “At the end of
the day, I’m not looking to have a
decades-long career in politics. If
you’re doing it right, you go in, you
go hard, step back, and hand the
baton to the next generation.”
He added, “We’ve had people in
offi ce for decades who have lost
complete touch with what it means
going on payday loans or homeowners
paying exorbitant taxes
they didn’t budget for. In a nutshell,
I’m running because I just haven’t
seen the change we need.”
Knox believes he can succeed
in such a role in part because he
has engaged in work with the local
community at a grassroots level,
including volunteering to help
homeless and formerly incarcerated
individuals re-establish themselves
in the workforce.
But Knox also enters the race
for City Council armed with lifechanging
experiences of his own.
Born in Oklahoma to a teenage
mother who struggled with substance
abuse, he grew up in Kansas
and came from a family lineage
that included sharecroppers.
He credits his family with instill-
➤ TERRANCE KNOX, continued on p.11
November 19 - November 25, 2 10 020 | GayCityNews.com
/GayCityNews.com
