Queens district attorney candidate Tiffany Cabán stopped at one point during a recent interview with Gay City News to make it clear she prefers to speak about the LGBTQ community in the first person because, in her words, “It’s my community.”
Cabán’s identity as a queer Latina woman has helped shape her career as a public defender and her understanding of other marginalized groups facing tough hurdles in the criminal justice system, and she is now vying to channel her insight toward a broader effort to shake up the political and legal establishment in the borough.
Cabán, who grew up in Queens, admitted she “never thought” she would be running for an office with a tough-on-crime reputation. But a burning desire to eradicate the systemic problems she’s witnessed was part of the driving force behind her decision to run, and she ultimately wants to flip the script on the way Queens residents think of prosecution in their borough.
“When I walk through the halls of the courthouse, people say, ‘You’re the good guy!,’” Cabán said, referring to her work as a public defender. “You have to ask why that is. Why am I on the good side?”
The 31-year-old Cabán is facing formidable foes in the looming June 25 primary race, including Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and City Councilmember Rory Lancman, both of whom have spent more than a decade serving as elected officials in various capacities. But Cabán has managed to stand out — and pile up endorsements — in part by touting progressive stances historically unheard of among district attorneys in the nation’s largest city, let alone in a borough where current DA Richard Brown will have reigned for more than 28 years when he resigns in June. (John Ryan will serve as acting DA until Brown’s permanent successor is chosen in the November 5 general election.)
Cabán felt emboldened to run for the office when she saw local political upstarts like Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez find success when running against entrenched political leaders who appeared destined to cruise to re-election.
Cabán’s slate of progressive stances include her support for the decriminalization of sex work — though she struggled to articulate during this interview whether it should be fully legalized — and she further broke with many district attorneys when she said it is not necessary to request cash bail in many cases, another issue that exposes the class divide in the criminal justice system, with some defendants easily able to afford it but others remaining behind bars for lengthy periods without having been convicted of anything. She has seen firsthand the impact of this issue in a meeting with a transgender client ahead of her court hearing.
“She couldn’t afford her bail,” Cabán said, recalling that her client was thrown into a holding area with men as she awaited a hearing. “I sat down across the bars from my client and saw a group of men standing behind her — and she was growing facial hair for the first time in a long time.”
That her client was growing facial hair — a clear sign of medical mistreatment in the withholding of needed hormones — and forced to be housed with men was a reflection of the inhumane conditions trans people can endure while incarcerated.