Candidate Answers to JOLDC: Jabari Brisport for NY Senate District 25
Candidate Name: Jabari Brisport
Office Seeking Election for: Senate District 25
Campaign Address: Please address physical mail to:
Adrienne Craig-Williams
Jabari for State Senate
544 East 11th Street, #3B
New York, NY 10009
Campaign Website: http://jabariforstatesenate.com/
Campaign Telephone: 425-233-4564
Campaign Social Media Handles (Facebook/Twitter):
● Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JabariBrisport/
● Twitter: https://twitter.com/JabariBrisport
● Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jabariforstatesenate/
Campaign Contact (name/phone/email):
● Main: contact@jabariforstatesenate.com
● Candidate: Jabari Brisport, 917-225-5709, jbrisport@gmail.com
● Manager: Fainan Lakha, 425-233-4565, fainan.jb@gmail.com
1. Explain, based on life experiences and accomplishments, why you believe you are best qualified to represent your district.
My family’s lived in Prospect Heights (the center of the district) for three generations - this is my community and I know its struggles. In 2017, when I ran for City Council in the overlapping neighborhoods, I earned the votes of over 9000 people in these neighborhoods, despite running on an independent line. Members of my community agreed with our vision of a transparent and responsive government at all levels that serves all the people, and isn’t afraid to speak truth to power. I’ve marched with these people, been arrested while protesting with them, and had more conversations than I can count over the years. I’m ready to fight for them in Albany.
2. Do you now support or have you ever supported an openly LGBTQ candidate for public office?
My organization, the Democratic Socialists of America, endorsed Cynthia Nixon for governor in 2018. Cynthia Nixon has also endorsed my campaign for state senate.
3. If applicable, what legislation directly affecting the LGBT community have you introduced or co-sponsored? (indicate accordingly)
I’m not currently in office but I did work very hard to get same sex marriage passed in NY in 2009 and 2011.
4. What LGBT organizations have you been involved with, either on a volunteer basis or professionally?
I’ve volunteered with the Human Rights Campaign, specifically attempting to pass Same Sex Marriage in NY State (2009 and 2011), and also to pass GENDA.
5. If applicable, what LGBT organizations have you allocated funds to?
I’ve donated to the Human Rights Campaign.
6. Do you consider yourself a member of the LGBT community?
Yes. If elected, I’d be the first gay state senator in Brooklyn, and the first gay state senator of color in all of New York.
7. Have you marched in Pride? Which marches and for approximately how many years?
I’ve attended Pride for over a decade, but not marched in it. I marched with the Reclaim Pride coalition in 2019.
8. Have you employed openly LGBT individuals previously? Do you employ any currently?
My campaign manager, Fainan Lakha is our only full time staff and she is a lesbian, transgender woman of color.
9. If you receive the endorsement, do you agree to identify the club on all literature and electronic materials where you list endorsements?
Yes!
10. What press conferences, demonstrations, rallies and protests in support of LGBT issues, pro choice legislation, criminal justice issues and the Resist Trump Movement have you attended?
I have attended countless rallies and demonstrations for same-sex marriage, the Black Lives Matter movement, police reform, and women’s rights. A perusal of my campaign social media feeds will show that I’m consistently standing with working and oppressed people.
11. Have you ever been arrested? If so please explain why and outcome of arrest.
I was arrested during my previous campaign for protesting against gentrification and luxury development in Crown Heights. I was given a 6 month ACD for my actions.
12. Will you advocate and sponsor legislation to mandate the review of sentences of incarcerated individuals over the age of 55 who have served in excess of 15 years to determine if they warrant release?
Yes, I’ve committed to this already in a shared platform for decarceration I worked on with several other candidates for state office in 2020.
13. Do you commit to visit constituents who are incarcerated in state prisons such as Bedford Correctional Facility?
Yes, I plan to meet with as many constituents as possible, regardless of incarceration status.
14. Do you believe sincere remorse, risk of reoffending and actions taken while incarcerated should be considered over the original crime in determinations of parole?
Yes, I believe in restorative justice. It’s that mentality that will help us reverse mass incarceration.
15. Have you participated in any demonstrations or protests in relation to the issues of clemency and parole?
I have not participated in any demonstrations/protests like this at this time. But I am willing and able to do so.
16. Will you affirmatively seek to hire formerly incarcerated individuals?
Yes, I will seek a diversity of experiences and identities when putting together my staff.
17. Do you believe in the decriminalization of sex work? Are you sponsoring the bill introduced by Jessica Ramos?
Yes, I believe that sex work is work, and that it should be decriminalized. This is also a racial justice issue, and black trans women see the worst harassment from law enforcement over this issue.
18. Will you actively oppose legislation that would implement the dangerous Nordic model instead of decriminalization of prostitution?
Yes, I absolutely will. Exposing sex workers to police in the form of raids on clients exposes the most marginalized workers, like trans people, people of color and immigrants, to incredible danger. I also believe that the right to bodily autonomy includes the right to do sex work, and so I do not believe in any kind of criminalization including of clients.
19. What proposals will you advocate for to protect immigrants and the further New York as a Sanctuary City?
Today, February 6th, Gaspar Avedano-Hernandez was driving in Brooklyn and was pulled over and found to be using a forged driver's license. Subsequently, an ICE officer shot him in the face. This kind of violence is horrific and unacceptable. As a legislator in New York, I will fight to pass legislation to minimize ICE’s presence across the state. I will also fight to grant citizenship rights to undocumented people in New York. Undocumented people should have the right to vote, the right to apply for professional licenses like teachers licenses, and equal access to all public resources, including health care, among other things. Undocumented people only recently got access to driver’s licenses in NY; it’s a tragedy that these reforms haven’t happened already.
20. Will you advocate, including introducing legislation, to remove public funding from religious schools?
I would like to remove public funding from any non-public school (religious or other) that doesn’t adhere to the same academic and ethical standards as our public schools. We can’t use public funds to encourage lax academic standards or non-inclusive environments.
21. Do you support the establishment of supervised drug consumption spaces?
Yes, this removes the stigma of drug addiction and also helps prevent complications from unsafe practices like sharing needles.
22. Have you ever endorsed any member of the IDC or any candidates who challenged IDC members? Please identify all candidates
I donated to and supported Zellnor Myrie against Jesse Hamilton.
23. Will you commit to hiring a member of the LGBT community to serve as a liaison to the community?
I will absolutely hire from the LGBT community. However, at this point in time, I have not earmarked what type of person I will hire for specific roles.
23. Will you commit to ensuring diverse LGBT representation among your staff?
Absolutely. As a member of the queer community, this is important to me. Again, my campaign manager is a lesbian, transgender woman of color.
24. Who did you support for office in the following races A) mayor and Public Advocate in 2014 B) President in 2016 C) Governor and Attorney General 2018
I was living in Connecticut for grad school during the 2013 city elections and did not support any candidates at that time, though I most likely would’ve supported DeBlasio and Tish James. For President in 2016 I supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Primary and in 2018 I supported Cynthia Nixon for governor and Zephyr Teachout for AG. I’m currently supporting Bernie Sanders for the 2020 Democratic Primary.
25. Describe any legislation and policy changes that you support in order to address the ongoing effects of slavery, racism, colonialism, and discrimination.
Black communities and communities of color face poorer schools, fewer hospitals lacking adequate staffing, unaffordable and low quality housing, and a lack of good, union jobs. I will support legislation that funds schools and hospitals, provides healthcare to all, and which builds truly affordable housing with good union jobs. I will also support legislation that protects workers from discrimination in the workplace and in hiring, as well as any measures which will defund or limit the scope of policing.
26. What legislation or other policy do you support in order to make college and graduate school affordable for poor, working-class, and middle-class Americans and to alleviate the crushing loan debt that many students and alumni are facing?
I support the goal of achieving free tuition in the CUNY and SUNY programs, as well as loan forgiveness for student debt. Everyone has a right to higher education.
27. Do you support a single-payer universal health care system? Please elaborate.
The private health insurance system produces profits much more than it produces healthy people. Healthcare is an issue that touches everyone, but it affects queer people and people of color in particularly intimate ways. Single payer is the only way to guarantee quality care to all, and would also allow resources to be transferred away from specialty clinics offering hundred-thousand dollar treatments to the wealthy, and toward addressing things like sickle-cell, HIV, and trans care that affect whole communities.
28. Discuss your stance on reproductive rights, including access to contraceptives and abortion services.
I believe bodily autonomy is a basic human right. To fulfill that right is not a question always of what one can or can’t do legally, but also about what one has access too. We need to expand access to free contraception as much as possible, and strive for abortion access that is safe, free, and on demand.
29. Will you refuse money from individuals or Political Action Committees representing the real estate industry?
Yes! I am a democratic socialist and I am proud to say I am not taking any corporate or developer donations.
30. Will you refuse and refund any contributions from executives at corporations complicit in the Trump agenda?
Yes, we cannot allow the financial interests behind Trump’s right wing agenda continue to distort our democracy.
31. Are you against the opening of casinos in New York owned and controlled by Trump mega-donor Sheldon Adelson?
Yes. In addition to funding misogyny and white nationalism, Sheldon Adelson is also notoriously anti-union. As a union member who grew up in a union household, I’d never do that to working class New Yorkers.
32. Do you support the surrogacy bill introduced by Senator Brad Hoylman allowing women to decide control of her body in regard to surrogacy?
Yes, it’s important that we respect women’s rights to bodily autonomy. And with a procedure as sensitive as surrogacy, it’s important that we don’t silence the voice of the woman who’s chosen to carry the child.
33. Will you cosponsor the legislation to prohibit evictions without good cause (previously S2892A)?
Yes. If I am elected I will make passing good cause a top priority because no one should have to worry about whether they can continue to live in their home.
34. Will you push for the passage of Home Stability Support (HSS) to bridge the difference between the public assistance shelter allowance and fair market rents for NY's 95,000 homeless?
Yes, given the extent and pace of gentrification today, robust public assistance is an important piece of solving the New York’s housing crisis.
35. What additional information would you like Jim Owles to consider when we are making our endorsements decisions?
I am a public servant first. As a teacher, I work with middle school age children to advance their lives. They need the best education our society can give them, a habitable planet to inherit, and an end to the school-to-prison pipeline. As an activist, I have fought for housing rights and even been arrested doing so. As the child of immigrants, I know how great America and New York can be but how much further we need to go to live up to this country and state’s promise. As a gay Black man, I know that justice can prevail when we keep on fighting.
My campaign is centering racial justice and how it affects many issues such as housing, environment, and education. But we know our whole system is affected by voting laws that hurt communities of color, labor laws that haven’t kept up with the changing economy, and law and order policies that ruin generations of young people. From my students to my neighbors, I have seen this firsthand. I want to make New York a beacon of progressive change and hope again for the United States and the world. My campaign is bringing together insurgent energy and the progressive base like no one else. I’d like for Jim Owles to be a part of that.