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.