Over here at Today in Gay we are always learning along with you and it was so enlightening to learn a little bit more about the legislative process in Puerto Rico with the first out trans person to hold an elected office in the island’s history, Marielle De León Toledo.
Vico and Marielle go way back to 2019, after meeting and dancing at a Drag show in Puerto Rico. I don’t know about you, but I want my politicians to be able to kiki. De León Toledo can do that, and so much more.
She has not only been an activist and community organizer for more than seven years, but also works in IT for the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, has a background in film, works on her own podcast with the queer organization La Sombrilla Cuir and somehow still has time to DJ?
De León Toledo was also on the board of Amnesty International, who supported the folks in the lawsuit to obtain the Gender “X” markers on on birth certificates in Puerto Rico, which we covered a few weeks ago.
She says this win was surprising in the climate under Trump’s administration and it means something to have the ability to create movement, even under a more conservative majority.
De León Toledo: “It feels amazing that we can still get things like this done in this environment.”
The legislator explained that she will act as a sort of check and balances along with two other elected officials, especially to politicians who are not following through with campaign promises. De Leon Toledo hopes to be able to keep mobilizing her efforts around many issues when she takes office in a few months, including immigration rights, queer access to medical services and funding for medical clinics in general.
De León Toledo: ‘We can basically hold them accountable by showing the hypocrisy of how, many times they might say during campaigns, like, “Oh, we're gonna do this and this and use our funds for this,” but hey, we didn't actually do most of those things.’
The activist is also part of the queer organization La Sombrilla Cuir (The Queer Umbrella) which releases monthly podcasts, educates the community around queer inclusive language and covers topics within the queer community such as - asexuality, polyamory, trans masculinity, transfemininity and how the genocide in Palestine intersects with queer issues.
We’re so grateful that Puerto Rico has the support of Marielle de León Toledo as an organizer of activism and good beats. You can follow the podcast, “La Ponkast,” for La Sombrilla Cuir @lasombrillacuir or follow her journey as an activist, legislator and more @marielletheleon. De León Toledo is also currently raising funds for her gender affirming surgery and we’d love to see some communal support for this community organizer and caretaker. Support her fundraiser here.
We can’t wait to see what she does next.
♥︎ TiG Team
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