Raquel Willis is an author, journalist, and activist whose trailblazing organizing and advocacy efforts in the fight for Black trans lives have reverberated from politics to publishing.
For Willis, writing and activism are entwined. Before she was the first trans executive editor for Out magazine, or a speaker at the 2017 Women’s March, she was a national organizer for the Transgender Law Center. Her 2023 memoir, The Risk It Takes to Bloom, is both a vulnerable personal narrative and a dynamic blueprint for change, interweaving her journey with the history of Black trans liberation. She has since co-founded the Gender Liberation Movement and helped organize the first Gender Liberation March on Washington in September 2024.
“I believe in my power, I believe in your power, I believe in our power,” she told a crowd of 15,000 people in 2020 at a Brooklyn march for Black trans lives. Amid unrelenting attacks on transgender rights, Willis reminds us that true liberation is not given—it’s fought for.
Page is an activist, author, and Oscar- and Emmy-nominated actor