13 LGBT Latinos Changing the World

Salcedo is a trangender activist who's sprearheaded many projects benefiting transgender youth, including Angels of Change, the TransLatina Coalition, and the TransLivesMatter National Day of Action. Most notably among her many speeches, Salcedo spoke at the White House for the 2012 Women and Girls National HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Salcedo also participated in the People of Color Conference and the United States Conference on AIDS in 2009 and 2012. 

Carlos Padilla is the coordinator for the Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project. He was born in Jalisco, Mexico, and moved to the United States when he was 2 years old. He came out as undocumented when he was 15 and as queer three years later. He has written on the "double closet" that undocumented LGBT people often deal with, and he cofounded the Washington Dream Act Coalition, which helps undocumented students pursuing education in the United States get financial aid. 

Ever since she jumped into the national spotlight as a contestant on season 3 of RuPaul's Drag Race, Carmen Carerra has become a vocal trans advocate and fashion model, and has spoken out out against RuPaul's use of words like "tranny" and "shemale," which she believes are transphobic. Her protest started a vicious and public social media fight with other former RuPaul competitors and even with RuPaul himself. She has also spoken out against the reclaiming of racial slurs and other derogatory terms. 

Emily Rios, who came out as gay on After Ellen last year, is perhaps best known for her role as lesbian Latina reporter Adriana Mendez on the FX drama The Bridge. Rios has also appeared on Breaking Bad and Friday Night Lights. Speaking about her role on The Bridge, she told After Ellen, “I’m gay, personally, so being Mexican and a lesbian — this is why I love the character because I deal with the same type of things with my own family. Mexican-Americans especially — because this generation, we come into America and your family wants to be proud. You want to come to this country and say, ‘This is what I have to show for it. I brought my family and we’re living our better life.’" 

Gutierrez, an undocumented Latina transgender activist for the Not1More campagign, caused controversy and incurred some negative backlash last June when she interrupted President Obama during his speech at the White House reception marking LGBT Pride Month. Gutierrez opposes Obama's immigration policy, and has defended her actions in the Washington Blade, writing, "There is no pride in how LGBTQ immigrants are treated in this country and there can be no celebration with an administration that has the ability to keep us detained and in danger or release us to freedom." 

Julio Salgado is a queer artist and cofounder of DreamersAdrift.com, a website that uses video and text to show an intimate glimpse of undocumented LGBT life in the United States. His undocumented status informs and fuels much of his edgy, pop-inspired art. In July of 2012, Salgado appeared on the cover of Time with Jose Antonio Vargas, an undocumented journalist who wrote an eloquent and scalding appraisal of United States immigration policy. 

Maricón Collective, a group of four queer artists, DJs, and party planners in Los Angeles, are not afraid of making bold statements. Adopting the Spanish word for "faggot" as the name of their foursome, the four men — Rudy Bleu, Carlos Morales, Manuel Paul and Michael Rodriguez — hope to reclaim a word that, growing up in Spanish-speaking homes, they feared for years. They started with a string of successful Chicano-style "backyard boogie" parties in the Los Angeles area and recently did a queer, Cholo-style mural in San Francisco's Mission District that was defaced — three times. They continue to release original art, design clothing, hold parties, and support Chicano and Spanish-speaking queer artists in California. 

Mathew Rodriguez is a queer Latino journalist and activist based in New York City. He has won multipe awards for his work,and has written for Slate, The Advocate, Refinery 29, and Modern Loss. The former community editor for TheBody.com, which collects an invaluable amount of news and resources for HIV-positive readers, he currently works as a staff writer for Mic.com. Poz magazine recognized Rodriguez as one of the 100 most influential youth in America. 

The former managing editor of The Advocate, Garcia was honored as one of Folio magazine's "20 in Their 20s" in 2014 for her work overseeing one of the nation's oldest and most prominent LGBT news publications. She recently took on the role of identities editor for Mic.com, which reports on progressive politics and racial diversity in America. 

Patricia Velasquez, from Venezuela, has modeled for the biggest names in fashion, like Vogue's Andre Leon Talley, Jean Paul Gaultier, Isaac Mizrahi, and Karl Lagerfeld. Last April she released a memoir, Straight Walk, about her steps to coming out as the world's first Latina lesbian supermodel, which has been met with great reviews. 

Patricia Yurena Rodríguez, winner of Miss Spain in both 2008 and 2013, came out as a lesbian via Instagram in August of last year, making her one of the very few openly lesbian beauty queens. 

Sgt. Ortega served three tours in the United States military until his most recent physical reached the aeromedical board in Fort Rucker, Ala,, where he was revealed to be transgender. After that, he was reassigned a desk job in Hawaii. Ortega came out publicly as a trans service member in a Washington Post article and has spoken with The Advocate about the U.S. military's continued policy banning trans service members, which has been in place since the 1970s. He cotinues to advocate for the 15,500 transgender citizens estimated to be currently serving in the military. 

Reyes is a two-spirit poet from Guerrero, Mexico, who now lives in San Jose, Calif. His poetry has been featured in the collection Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry, and he has published a chapbook of poetry called For Colored Boys Who Speak Softly. A skilled slam poet, Reyes holds the title for the 2005 and 2006 South Bay Grand Slam Champion and was featured in the documentary 2nd Verse: The Rebirth of Poetry.