State Senator Jabari Brisport used his annual Pride Month speech on the New York State Senate floor to celebrate generations of queer resilience and tell anti-LGBTQIA+ leaders to give up. Standing in Albany on Wednesday, June 4, Brisport gave a history lesson from a formerly enslaved drag pioneer to the Stonewall uprising and rebuked people trying to legislate queer New Yorkers out of public life, as first reported by Brooklyn Paper.
Brisport, who has represented parts of Fort Greene, Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy since 2021, said he is the first openly gay person of color to serve in the state Senate and is one of only two openly queer state senators in office today. His remarks accompanied the Senate’s Pride resolution, introduced every year, which recognizes the queer community’s history in New York and nationally, from Stonewall to marriage equality to recent anti-LGBTQIA+ laws passed by federal and state governments.
He opened by wishing the queer community a happy Pride, then turned to those seeking to oppress them.
“Actually though. Give up,” Brisport said. “If it were possible to create a world without queer people you would have managed it by now. Throughout history you have demonized us, ostracized us, harassed us, assaulted us, criminalized us, sterilized us, killed us, censored us, fired us, evicted us, and denied us medical care. Yet still, here we are, looking fabulous.”
Brisport discussed William Dorsey Swann, a gay man born into slavery in Maryland in 1860. In the late 1800s, Swann organized drag balls in Washington, D.C., mostly for formerly enslaved men, and called himself “the queen of drag.” He was sentenced to jail on false charges of running a brothel, and after his release demanded a pardon from President Grover Cleveland.
“When he and his guests were arrested during police raids of his events, he did not suffer in silence,” Brisport said. “He fostered an equally proud tradition of advocacy for queer liberation.”
That tradition continued in 1969, Brisport said, when Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson led the Stonewall uprising. Johnson is memorialized at Marsha P. Johnson State Park along the East River waterfront in Williamsburg, a short walk from Bushwick.
“See, for queer people, resilience is an art form that’s been handed down through generations of found-family and perfected over centuries,” Brisport said.
“Your hate can harm us. Your hate can even end lives,” Brisport said. “But your hate cannot bring you peace. Your hate cannot win you a higher wage, affordable medical care, clean air, or lower energy bills. Above all, your hate cannot end our movement.”
Queer New Yorkers, he said, will keep dancing, celebrating and marching in the streets through Pride month, and honoring the legacies of those who came before, from Swann to Johnson to Rivera.
Featured image: New York Senate Photo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
