Vela Velazquez

Vela is committed to uplifting and supporting the LGBTQ+ community, both at MIT and beyond. Vela founded TransMIT, an MIT student group for the trans, nonbinary, gender questioning, and gender non-conforming community in its entirety. As president of TransMIT, Vela has led numerous initiatives and programs that were designed by and for the trans and gender expansive community. This past Pride Month, TransMIT organized to bring a group of MIT students to the Trans Resistance March, emphasizing how important it is to vocally advocate for trans rights and equality. Through TransMIT, Vela helped organize MIT's first Chest Binder and Bra Drive to ensure that gender affirming clothing, which is often inaccessible to many due to its cost, could be accessed by those who need it. They've also compiled necessary resources that the LGBTQ+ community at MIT benefit from to make it easier to access name changes, gender neutral restrooms, sex changes, and more.

Vela is also working to support policy efforts by the Gender Identity Initiative to address deadnaming and misgendering at MIT. In addition to bringing more attention to the deadnaming that was occurring within the housing system, they're working to compile a comprehensive list of places where MIT community members are being referred to by their deadnames so this issue can be fixed with input from the trans community members who are most impacted.

Vela takes their experiences as a queer advocate to the various spaces they engage with. As an undergraduate representative for the EAPS DEIC, they are vocal about the issues that queer undergrads face as EAPS majors. Through their work with GreenRoots, an environmental justice organization that is dedicated to improving the health, wellbeing, and environmental conditions of Chelsea, MA, Vela has worked on a leadership training program to demonstrate the pivotal role that diversity and inclusivity will play in combating climate change.