#Brooklyn Democratic leader pushes for rule allowing transgender members to serve

The chairwoman of the Brooklyn Democrat Party wants to change party rules to allow Democrats who identify as transgender or non-binary to serve in the county committee’s elected leadership positions.

Party leader and Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte noted that under current party rules, elected committee posts must equally split between men and women.

“As a new county chair my first priority is to expand voting rights and the ability for all to participate in our democracy and run for office, and that very much includes individuals in Brooklyn regardless of identification as binary – male or female, nonbinary, gender fluid, genderqueer, or transgender,” Bichotte said.

The Kings County Democratic Party is the nation’s largest and anything it does could have a ripple effect elsewhere.

Bichotte appointed a 14-member task force to come up with recommendations to broaden the King County Committee’s electric district leadership.

“We should welcome everybody. We shouldn’t leave anyone behind. It’s not fair,” Bichotte told The Post.

The Committee is also dealing with a separate problem, that not enough men are running for positions on the body.

In 1938, the State Constitution was revised to permit equal representation by sex on political party committees. State Election Law also requires that designating petitions for party offices must identify individuals separately by sex.

But the 50-50 split between men and women is now impractical because there aren’t enough males running for party posts, Bichotte said.

A majority of the activists in the Brooklyn Democratic Party are women, but the current rules limit their membership to 50 percent of elected posts.

The quota means many election district leader positions remain vacant during elections because not enough males are running to fill them and women are barred from serving on them because of the 50-50 quota.

The Brooklyn party should consider eliminating gender parity given its overwhelming female complexion, she said.

“There’s a surge of woman and LGBT candidates winning elections,” Bichotte said.