The Community Service award recognizes an up-and-coming leader in the LGBTQ+ community. Latina transgender advocate Naya Marie Velazco is being honored for her dedicated work to improve the lives of Black and brown trans women and other gender minorities.
“Especially now, with all the rhetoric that’s going on and all the hateful rhetoric, it just feels nice to be seen. It feels nice to feel valued, to feel validated and to feel seen,” Velazco said about receiving the award.
She currently serves as the director of programs for the Transgender Health & Wellness Center and has experience promoting sexual health, HIV prevention and community building.
“San Diego does have this level of cultural competency, but sadly, a lot of my peers and our constituents are still experiencing harassment, discrimination, violence. They’re being denied access to jobs,” she said. “As much as we are visible and we’re proud to be visible, it’s still not safe.”
While building a database of volunteers, Velazco has loved networking to get more trans representation on boards and initiatives. Volunteers receive an accelerated professional development program.
“I try to give people the opportunity, a network, develop skills, and just a platform where… they’re poached by agencies and they’re given jobs. I like to create opportunities. I like to scale leadership,” Velazco said.
Right now, she is using her position to bring institutions such as UCSD and John Hopkins to conduct research on marginalized communities that have often been overlooked and understudied. Beyond just HIV prevention, the research about trans people by trans people will provide more demographic information and quality of life data that can shape policies.
Already, Velazco said there is a crisis of trans elders who were on the front lines of fighting for LGBTQ+ rights now struggling in poverty.
“I know that we’re stronger together– LGBT but sadly the T, we are strong, we are resilient, we are beautiful, but we are tired. And we need help,” she said. “Unless we see Black and brown transgender people, queer people thriving, then we’re not doing a good job.”
From here, Velazco intends to expand her work to help trans elders and hopes to work with elected officials to have protections for trans people woven into more laws.
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