About:

Carmen Vázquez was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in Harlem, New York. Among her many accomplishments, Carmen was the Founding Director of the Women’s Building in San Francisco, helped found the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center in San Francisco, and the LGBT Health & Human Services Network, a coalition of over 55 organizations and groups in New York advocating for LGBT Health and Human Services. The Network has secured over $70 million dollars in state funding for its members. She is a founder and principal author of Causes in Common (a national coalition of Reproductive Justice and LGBT Liberation activists) and of the Pride in Action programs at Empire State Pride Agenda. She is the recipient of an honorary law degree from CUNY School of Law for her public interest work and her papers are part of the permanent collection at the Sophia Smith Archives at Smith College. Her essays have been published in several anthologies and she has highlighted numerous conferences and campus events as a keynote presenter on intersectional issues of social justice and sexual freedom. Carmen is currently Director of the LGBT Health Services Unit with the AIDS Institute of the NYS Department of Health. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.