Raquel Willis

Raquel Willis is an award-winning author, activist, and media strategist dedicated to collective liberation, especially for Black trans folks. She is the co-founder of the Gender Liberation Movement and an executive producer with iHeartMedia's first-ever LGBTQ+ podcast network, Outspoken. Raquel hosts two podcast series: AfterLives and Queer Chronicles. She is also the author of The Risk it Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation, which was published via St. Martin's Press in November of 2023 to critical acclaim. Raquel served as the Grand Marshal for NYC Pride in 2024. 

Raquel has held groundbreaking posts, including director of communications for Ms. Foundation for Women, executive editor of Out Magazine, and national organizer for Transgender Law Center. She co-founded Transgender Week of Visibility and Action with civil rights attorney Chase Strangio. She is the president of Solutions Not Punishments Collaborative's executive board, and serves on the board for the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art.

She published the GLAAD Media Award-winning "Trans Obituaries Project," in 2022, she executive produced and hosted "The Trans Youth Town Hall" with Logo. The work was nominated for the GLAAD Media Awards and won Gold distinction in the Shorty Awards. She was also honored as a 2023 ADCOLOR Advocate. 

Her writing has been published in Black Futures by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham, Bulgari Magnifica: The Power Women Hold edited by Tina Leung, The Echoing Ida Collection edited by Kemi Alabi, Cynthia R. Greenlee, and Janna A. Zinzi, and Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha Blain. She has also written for Essence, Bitch, VICE, Buzzfeed, The Cut, and Vogue.

Raquel is a thought leader on gender, race, and intersectionality. She’s experienced in online publications, organizing marginalized communities for social change, non-profit media strategy, and public speaking while using digital activism as a major tool of resistance and liberation.