Latinx

U.S. Congressman

b. March 12, 1988

“In politics, it’s important to be decisive, to take a stand, which is what I do.”

Ritchie Torres is the first Afro-Latinx U.S. congressman. He represents New York’s 15th District, one of the poorest and most diverse in the nation. At age 25, he became the youngest elected official in New York City and the first openly gay elected official in the Bronx.

Raised by a single mother, Torres and his two siblings grew up in a run-down public housing project in the South Bronx. Though Torres realized he was gay in middle school, he did not come out to anyone until 10th grade.

Throughout high school, Torres held part-time jobs and developed a taste for political nonfiction. He was the captain of the law team and loved participating in moot court. At 16, he interned with the deputy mayor of New York City.

Torres attended New York University for a little more than a year before he fell into depression and dropped out in 2007. He speaks candidly about his journey from standing “on the verge of suicide” to overcoming “the odds” to realize his political aspirations.

After a time, Torres became a community organizer, advocating for adequate, affordable public housing. He also worked for a city councilman, who encouraged Torres to run in 2013 for a seat on New York City Council. Torres opened up about his sexuality, concluding, “If you are deceitful about your personal life, then you’re likely to be deceitful about your professional life.”

At age 25, Torres became the youngest elected official in the city and the first openly gay elected official in the Bronx. On City Council, he served as chairman of the Committee on Public Housing and led hearings exposing New York’s failure to correct unsafe building conditions. He helped open the first LGBT homeless shelter for young adults in the Bronx and ensured that every borough had funding for LGBT senior centers. He won reelection in 2017.

Torres ran for Congress in 2020. He out-fundraised the incumbent to become the first Afro-Latinx U.S. congressman. “It’s one thing to have a representative in the gayborhoods of New York City and the United States,” he explained. “It’s another thing to have an LGBTQ representative in the places you might least expect it.”

Torres has spoken out against the “antiquated rule that prohibits members of Congress from joining both the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.”

Though he supports much of the Democratic Socialists’ agenda, he identifies as an independent progressive who puts legislative efficacy above ideology.

Torres received the Courage in Government Award from the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. He lives in the South Bronx.
 

Designer, Entrepreneur & Leader

b. December 1959

“If we are to be the future, then we have to take the future in our own hands.”

Henry Reuben Muñoz III is an architectural designer, an activist and a philanthropist. In 2013 he became the first Latinx and first openly gay national finance chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Muñoz was born in San Antonio, Texas, where his father was an established Latinx labor organizer and civil rights activist. As a child, Muñoz attended many protests. Those experiences helped shape his conviction that the American dream should be available to all.

Muñoz attended Loyola University, where he now sits on the Board of Trustees. In 1983 he joined Jones & Kell, one of the country’s oldest minority-owned architectural firms. Despite his lack of formal architectural training or licensing, Muñoz developed a diverse portfolio and pioneered the Mestizo Regionalism and Latino Urbanism styles. His design expertise and cultural understanding eventually led him to assume ownership of the firm, now known as Muñoz & Company.

In 1992 Muñoz was appointed transportation commissioner of Texas, making him the first Latinx person to hold the position. He also became an outspoken philanthropist, pledging to fight “dangerous racism … almost of historic proportions.”

In 2007 Muñoz joined the DNC’s fundraising efforts in support of Barack Obama’s first presidential bid. He worked within the Democratic party to mobilize “not only Latinos, but the LGBT community and women.” Through the Futuro Fund, a committee established to engage first-time Latinx donors, Muñoz and the actress Eva Longoria raised $30 million for President Obama’s reelection in 2012. That same year, Muñoz was elected finance chairman of the DNC— the party’s chief fundraising post. Beyond raising money, he believed it was necessary to “rethink, redesign and rebuild the party from scratch.”

In 2014 Muñoz and Longoria created the Latino Victory Fund, which works to elect Latinx candidates to all levels of government. Muñoz also established TheDream.US, an organization that helps young immigrants fund higher education. It has awarded in excess of $141 million in scholarships to more than 6,000 students.

Muñoz served three terms as DNC finance chair before stepping down in 2019. He held the post longer than anyone else. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi described him as a “visionary who leads by example” and a critical contributor to the 2020 election victory.

Muñoz continues to serve as chairman and CEO of his architectural firm and to promote the role of cultural diversity in the American narrative. He serves on numerous boards and leads the commission to develop the Smithsonian American Latino Museum.

Muñoz married his husband in 2017 in a ceremony officiated by now-President Joe Biden. The couple lives in New York and Connecticut.

CNN Executive Producer

b. November 11, 1977

“As Americans we should all share one dream … that we should all enjoy the same rights as everybody else.”

Javier Morgado is a journalist and a four-time Emmy Award-winning executive producer at CNN. He received his latest award as part of the CNN team whose breaking coverage of George Floyd’s murder won a News Emmy on September 28, 2021. Morgado earned an Edward R. Murrow Award in 2018 for CNN’s coverage of the devastation in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria.

Morgado was born to Cuban parents in Miami, Florida. Cable news captivated him early on. Eventually, he grew “completely obsessed” with the format and writing of news programs. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami and holds two master’s degrees: one from Fordham University and one from New York University. He completed executive education programs at Harvard Business School and Northwestern University and began his journalism career in 1995 at WPLG, Miami’s ABC affiliate.

In 1999 Morgado joined NBC’s WTVJ as an assignment editor. In 2001 his work with NBC News hunting down leads on the September 11 terrorist attacks captured the network’s attention. He soon was promoted to the NBC News assignment desk in New York.

During his 11 years there, Morgado held several leadership positions. He played a pivotal role in the network’s coverage of breaking stories, including the Space Shuttle Columbia explosion, and served on the team that led the network’s award-winning coverage of the Iraq war in 2003. Mogado worked as senior political editor during the 2004 presidential election and the 2006 midterms. He became the supervising producer of “TODAY” from 2006 to 2010, during which time, the show won two Daytime Emmys.

In December 2011, Morgado joined CNN as senior broadcast producer of “Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien.” He became the executive producer of “New Day,” a position he held for seven years, before moving on to produce “At This Hour With Kate Bolduan.”

Morgado is a lifetime member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA). He is vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Martha Graham Dance Company and sits on the boards of the Stonewall Community Foundation and the Provincetown Film Festival. He is a member of the Dean’s Committee at the University of Miami School of Communication and teaches as an adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

For Morgado, being openly gay in the workplace is an incredible asset. He insists, “Being true to who I am allows me to focus on the stories we tell, on reporting the truth and on showcasing diverse perspectives in our coverage.”

White House Social Secretary

“In both my professional and personal life, it has always been important to me to represent our community in a positive manner.”

Carlos Elizondo is the Biden administration’s White House social secretary. He is the first Hispanic American, the second man and the second openly LGBT person to hold the position.

Elizondo was born in Harlingen, Texas. He graduated in 1985 from Pontifical College Josephinum, a private Roman Catholic college and school of theology in Columbus, Ohio. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Latin American studies.

In 1988 Elizondo entered the political scene as a fellow in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), which provides development opportunities for emerging Latinx civic leaders. Through the fellowship, he worked in the Mexican Government Tourism Office at the Embassy of Mexico in Washington, D.C. He credits CHCI with providing him “a solid foundation for [his] future career path.”

Subsequently, Elizondo joined the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest Latinx nonprofit advocacy organization in the United States. He also worked in a variety of events-related positions at trade associations in the D.C. area, before he was appointed to a position in the Clinton administration in 1992.

During President Clinton’s two terms, Elizondo served in the White House and in the Office of the U.S. Chief of Protocol. As a protocol officer, he coordinated and managed the NATO 50th Anniversary Summit, the Centennial Olympic Games, Papal visits, and other high-profile events involving national and international White House guests.

From 2000 to 2001, he managed special activities and protocol at Walt Disney World. When he returned to Washington, he worked for six years as the senior director of presidential events at Georgetown University. During the Obama administration, Elizondo served as special assistant to the president and social secretary to then-Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill.

In 2020 the Biden White House named Elizondo social secretary. He was the first LGBTQ person appointed to President Biden’s staff and is only the second man to hold the position. He came to the role with more experience than anyone before him. His responsibilities include impeccably hosting and entertaining the world’s most powerful people.

Outside of his professional duties, Elizondo maintains a very private life. He lives with his husband in Washington, D.C. He has volunteered with several Washington community organizations and has mentored Latinx youth, many of whom were from his native area of Texas.

Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia

b. March 9, 1970

“Today was the day of the woman.” 

Claudia López is the first woman and the first openly gay person to be elected mayor of Bogotá, Colombia. She holds the second most important political office in the country.

López was raised with her five younger siblings in the working-class neighborhoods of Bogotá. She discovered her passion for politics in college as part of the mass student movement La Séptima Papeleta (The Seventh Ballot). The movement came about following the assassination of Colombia’s president. It demanded the formation of a National Constituent Assembly to modify the Colombian Constitution.

López landed her first political position as an assistant to Enrique Peñalosa’s 1995 campaign for mayor of Bogotá. After Peñalosa was elected, López directed his Community Action Administrative Department and launched a career as a newspaper columnist, becoming one of Colombia’s most respected political analysts.

In 2005 López began exposing the infiltration of paramilitary groups in some of the highest levels of government. Her research and reporting on the parapolítica network triggered a national scandal that led to the prosecution of more than 60 congressman—greater than one third of the Congress.

In 2008 López joined a think tank, New Rainbow Corporation, as coordinator of armed conflict research. Her work led to a 2013 publication that established ties between Francisco Gomez, the former governor of La Guajira province, and a major drug trafficker. Gomez was investigated and sentenced to 55 years in prison. López received death threats and was forced to flee the country. Despite this, she returned to Colombia the following year to run for the Senate.

As a senator, she co-led a ballot referendum to reduce corruption. She resigned from the Senate to run as vice president to Sergio Fajardo in Colombia’s 2018 presidential election, but Fajardo was defeated.

Thereafter, López began her mayoral campaign, running on a platform of improving public education, supporting infrastructure and fighting corruption. She won the election in October 2019 by a narrow margin. Her win as a woman and a lesbian made history in the conservative country. In her victory speech, López declared it “the day of the woman,” crediting the unity of her diverse constituency for her success.

In December 2019, López married Representative Angélica Lozano Correa. López took office on January 1, 2020.

Parkland Gun Control Activist

b. November 11, 1999

“#InOurLifetime, we will fight for and alongside victims of gun violence, and we will prevail.”

At age 18, Emma González became a prominent gun control advocate after surviving the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on February 14, 2018, in Parkland, Florida. As a leader of the #NeverAgain Movement, her activism gave rise to nationwide demonstrations and helped trigger a monumental shift in U.S. anti-gun initiatives.

The daughter of a Cuban immigrant, González was raised in Parkland. She identifies as bisexual and served as president of her high school gay-straight alliance. As a senior, González survived the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history. The massacre left 17 students and staff members dead and 17 others injured.

Just three days after the carnage, González courageously transformed her anguish into activism. She delivered an impassioned speech at a gun control rally in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, calling “B.S.” on politicians and the NRA. “If all our government and president can do is send thoughts and prayers,” she declared, “then it’s time for victims to be the change that we need to see.” The speech was broadcast nationally and went viral on social media.

In the following weeks, González became one of the most visible and outspoken student activists to emerge from the Parkland tragedy. As a leader and founding member of the student gun control advocacy group Never Again MSD—alongside Cameron Kasky, David Hogg and several others—González spoke out for gun reform during multiple high-profile media appearances. She helped organize March for Our Lives, a series of demonstrations that mobilized hundreds of thousands of protestors across the nation and around the world.

As a direct response to the Never Again Movement, the Florida Legislature passed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Florida High School Public Safety Act, which established a new set of gun restrictions.

It marked the first time in 30 years that the state had passed gun control measures. On March 9, 2018, when the governor signed the bill into law, he said, “To the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, you made your voices heard. You didn't let up and you fought until there was change.”

During the summer of 2018, González traveled the country holding rallies for stronger gun control and to encourage young people to vote in the midterm elections. In the 18 months following the Parkland shooting, more than 65 new gun violence prevention measures passed in the United States.

González entered the New College of Florida in the fall of 2018.

Inaugural Poet

b. February 5, 1968

“I don’t exclusively align myself with any one particular group — Latino, Cuban, gay or ‘white’ — but I embrace them all.”

Blanco is the youngest, the first Latino and the first openly gay person to be named a U.S. inaugural poet. He read his poem “One Today,” written soon after the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration. He describes the poem as “a unique snapshot of where we are as a country.”

Blanco was born in Madrid to Cuban exiles. Shortly thereafter, the family immigrated to New York and later settled in Miami, where Blanco was raised. He graduated from Florida International University with a degree in civil engineering and worked initially as a consulting civil engineer. His creative yearnings eventually sent him back to his alma mater, where he earned an MFA in creative writing.

His first book of poetry, “City of a Hundred Fires,” published in 1998, won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh. After the book’s success, Blanco accepted a creative writing professorship at Central Connecticut State University. Subsequently, he taught at Georgetown University, American University and at the Writer’s Center.

Blanco’s poetry explores his cultural heritage and sexuality, most notably in “Looking for the Gulf Motel,” published in 2012. “It’s trying to understand how I fit between negotiating the world, between being mainstream gay and being Cuban gay,” he says.

His work has been published in The Nation, Ploughshares, New England Review, Americas Review and many other poetry journals and publications. He received the PEN Open Book Award for “Directions to the Beach of the Dead” in 2006 and the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry for “Looking for the Gulf Motel” in 2013. He wrote and read the poem, “Matters of the Sea,” for the reopening ceremony of the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba, in 2015.

Blanco has participated in many charitable causes, including Freedom to Marry and One Fund, an organization that benefits victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. He lives in Bethel, Maine, with his partner, Dr. Mark Neveu, a research scientist.

Olympic Figure Skater

b. September 7, 1969, San Jose, California

“HIV-AIDS is not a death sentence. You can go out there and do what you want.”

In 1996 Rudy Galindo became the first United States skating champion to come out as openly gay.

Galindo is famous for his grace on the ice. A singles and doubles skating phenomenon, he won the World Junior Championship in 1987 and the U.S. National Championship in 1997. With doubles partner Kristi Yamaguchi, he won the World Junior Championship in 1988 and the U.S. National Championship in 1989 and 1990. In 1996 he won the bronze medal at the World Championships.

In 1997 Galindo published his autobiography, which recounted his childhood of poverty, the death of his older brother and a coach from AIDS, the death of his domineering father, and his mother’s mental illness.

In 2000 Galindo came out as HIV-positive. In 2001 he was awarded the Ryan White Award for Service to Prevent HIV/AIDS.

Boxer

b. July 1, 1981, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico

“I have and will always be a proud Puerto Rican. I have always been and always will be a proud gay man.”

The 2000 Olympic Games were pivotal for boxer Orlando Cruz. After representing Puerto Rico in the games, Cruz launched his professional boxing career. He won a world featherweight title and went nine years without a defeat.

The homophobia that Cruz experienced growing up in Puerto Rico made it difficult for him to accept his sexuality, especially in the world of boxing machismo. Cruz’s internal conflict continued as rumors spread among boxing fans. This tension culminated during his 2008 world title fight. “The spectators bad-mouthed me; they called me a faggot,” Cruz said. “That’s when I realized that something had to change.”

Cruz spent the next few years meeting with a psychologist to work through coming out publicly. In 2012 Cruz became the first professional boxer to come out during his career and one of the first professional athletes to come out while still active. Soon after, he won a major fight wearing rainbow shorts. A year later he married his boyfriend.

In 2013 the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame made Cruz an inaugural inductee. He stated, “I want kids to know that you can be whoever you want to be, including a professional boxer.”

Activist

b. December 12, 1923

d. August 19, 2013

“Why be ashamed of who you are?"

José Sarria was a drag performer, singer and activist. He was the first openly gay man in the world to run for public office. 

Sarria, who was of Latin-American descent, was born in San Francisco. He was raised by his mother and grandmother, who allowed him to dress in women’s clothes.

During World War II, Sarria enlisted in the army. His fellow soldiers discriminated against him because he was gay. Sarria became friends with some by giving them tours of San Francisco.

Sarria began performing at “The Black Cat,” a San Francisco gay club. His shows, which included warning guests of police extortion and raids on gay bars, were a hit. Although the messages were often serious, Sarria presented them humorously and with a gay twist. He became famous for his closing song, “God Save Us Nelly Queens.”

In 1961, Sarria became the first openly gay candidate for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He lost, but received 5,600 votes, demonstrating that a gay voting bloc could wield political power. The possibility of empowerment laid the groundwork for the election of Harvey Milk.

In the 1960s, San Francisco gay bars were being shut down. The Tavern Guild of San Francisco organized a drag ball to protest. Sarria was crowned Queen of the Ball. 

Sarria cofounded the Imperial Court System, an international organization that raises money for people living with HIV/AIDS and other causes. In 2006, a street in San Francisco was named in his honor.