Manhattan-based New York State Assembly candidates David Siffert and Illapa Sairitupac are on the verge of becoming the state’s first out non-binary lawmakers following their victories in Democratic primary contests this summer.
Siffert, an attorney and professor, declared victory in the primary for the 66th District on July 15 after initial election night results had failed to yield a clear winner, while Sairitupac, a social worker who ran unsuccessfully for Assembly in 2022, emerged victorious on primary election night last month in the 65th Assembly District.
In the end, according to City & State, Siffert won by only 15 votes out of more than 17,000 voters throughout the district, which covers the west side of Manhattan from West 17th Street down to Fulton Street. Another candidate in that primary race, Manhattan Community Board 2 chair Jeannine Kiely, conceded on the same day.
Siffert is set to replace retiring Assemblymember Deborah Glick, who was first elected in historic fashion in 1990 as New York State’s first out state lawmaker.
In an interview with Gay City News, Siffert said they opted to run for office after they felt the State Legislature had lost momentum following progressive gains in 2019 — the same year New York passed the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, banned conversion therapy on minors, and saw widespread activism around issues like the decriminalization of sex work. And the year before that, Siffert recalled, lawmakers associated with the Independent Democratic Conference were ousted and Democrats regained control of the State Senate.
“Then it slowed down,” Siffert said. “It was disappointing to see. I started writing all these bills, and they just weren’t going anywhere and it was confusing and sort of upsetting to me.”
Siffert, who coauthored an inclusive ballot initiative with Émilia Decaudin, channeled their frustrations into a campaign for political office after learning that Glick would be retiring at the end of her term.
More than 30 years after Glick made history, Siffert welcomes the distinction of likely becoming one of two of the first out non-binary lawmakers in New York State.
“It really means a lot to me,” Siffert told Gay City News, especially, they said, “at a time right now where trans Americans are really under serious threat.”
“It’s at a point where New York City hospitals are cutting gender-affirming care for youth and young adults, which is lifesaving treatment by a federal government who wants those people to die,” Siffert said. “New York State has passed a lot of important legislation to protect trans New Yorkers, but we haven’t had representation.”
Sairitupac, who identifies as gay and genderqueer, also hopes to use their power as a state lawmaker to support the LGBTQ community in a Lower Manhattan district that includes the Financial District, Chinatown, and the Lower East Side. In the general election, Sairitupac is technically set to face Republican candidate Helen Qiu, who lost by more than 40 points in the general election for City Council’s District 1 last year. Qiu’s City Council campaign website remains online, but there does not appear to be an online website dedicated to her Assembly campaign.
“As a proud genderqueer person, I will enter Albany at a time when the LGBTQ community is under systemic attack by the federal government,” Sairitupac told Gay City News. “I have a deep solidarity for my fellow queer and non-binary New Yorkers. I will uphold my responsibility to this community and fight to implement state-level protections for trans youth, housing for insecure elders, and immigrants who are villainized on the basis of both race and gender.”
Speaking of LGBTQ issues, Siffert hopes state lawmakers eventually pass the Gender Affirming Care Protection Act, which would require Medicaid to cover gender-affirming care — no matter the status of federal funding — but they noted that the priority right now seems to be creating a gender-affirming care fund.
“We are at a point in the country where we need independent clinics that aren’t affiliated with institutions that get federal funding,” Siffert explained. “As [conservatives] take control of the court system, we will see where these cases end up, but I dont think that’s the case if we have independent-run clinics.”
On another key LGBTQ issue, both Siffert and Sairitupac support legislation to decriminalize sex work in New York — a topic that has largely fallen out of the public discourse after gaining significant attention and momentum in 2019, leading to the passage of legislation to repeal a discriminatory loitering law known as a ban on “walking while trans.”
“In terms of strategies, I think there are a lot of ways New York has gotten more conservative,” Siffert said. “After the George Floyd protests, we saw collaboration between law enforcement and media to create a narrative that was right-wing and I think was extremely intentionally done. I would say our government directly participated in the creation of that narrative. I think it was successful in rolling back a lot of progressive efforts. I think anything related to criminal legal reform is a target, and I think the decriminalization of sex work is part of that. I think the election this year has proven we are clawing our way out of it.”
Unless other challengers emerge, Siffert is expected to sail to victory in the general election and have their own chance to make a mark in a district that has long been represented by Glick. In speaking with Gay City News, Siffert offered a great deal of respect for Glick’s legacy, even while acknowledging that “there are a lot of things I disagreed with [Glick] about.” Siffert would often visit Glick’s office in an effort to convince her to sign on to legislation she didn’t support or had mixed feelings about.
“One thing I say about Deborah Glick,” Siffert said, “is she is incorruptible. There is no amount of money or power you could offer her that would make her shift off her values, which I think is an important quality in an elected official who has power. The most dangerous thing is power itself. She did an amazing job of not caving to powerful interests.”
Siffert’s background includes serving as legal director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), an anti-mass surveillance non-profit; teaching about the New York State Legislature at NYU School of Law; and directing research and projects at the Center on Civil Justice at NYU Law. Siffert is also the founding executive director of NYU’s State Government Initiative.
Looking forward, Siffert hopes their experience in law and education will equip them with the knowledge necessary to succeed in Albany.
“The need for people to have a deep understanding of constitutional law to craft rules is really important, and I think there are ways government can work together on litigation to protect LGBTQ people,” Siffert said. “I think you have seen [Attorney General] Letitia James on the front line of novel and important litigation to protect people.”
