GENDER LIBERATION MOVEMENT (GLM) is an emergent and innovative grassroots and volunteer-run national collective that builds direct action, media, and policy interventions centering bodily autonomy, self-determination, the pursuit of fulfillment, and collectivism in the face of gender-based sociopolitical threats.
GENDER LIBERATION is the power to defy* or transcend the gendered expectations that harm and limit us.
The Core Team
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Raquel Willis (she/her)
An award-winning author, activist, and media strategist dedicated to Black transgender liberation. She 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 and currently serves as an executive producer for iHeartMedia's Outspoken, and the president of the Solutions Not Punishments Collaborative’s executive board. She was a grand marshall for NYC Pride 2024 and is an ADCOLOR Advocate.
Her debut memoir, The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation, was released in November 2023 via St. Martin’s Press.
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Sarah Sophie Flicker (she/her)
A culture organizer, creative director & artist. She is a founder of the Women’s March On Washington, The Resistance Revival Chorus, The Citizens Band, The Meteor, Joy To The Polls, Firebrand, The Gender Liberation Movement and is a co-author of the Women’s March official book, Together We Rise, which was released in January 2018 and was a New York Times bestseller. She is a Pop Culture; Becoming America Fellow and a Gender Justice Fellow. She was named Glamour’s Woman of the Year in 2017.
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Eliel Cruz (he/they)
An award-winning, history-making organizer and advocacy communications expert. He is a co-organizer for the Brooklyn Liberation March: An Action for Black Trans Lives, which drew an estimated 20, 000 people in June 2020, and again in 2021, an action for trans youth that brought out thousands.
He was recognized in Out Magazine’s #Out100 list for both his work as the former Director of Communications at the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP), and for his pivotal activism in pursuing justice for Layleen Polanco, a 27-year-old Afro-Latinx trans woman who died in solitary confinement on Rikers Island in June 2019. He’s spoken at universities and conferences nationwide and has written for numerous publications. He is represented by Ayesha Pande Literary.
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Fran Tirado (she/her)
A writer, podcaster, and filmmaker in Brooklyn. She has led editorial strategy for magazines like Out, Hello Mr., and GAYTIMES, worked at ad agencies like Chandelier Creative, and managed Netflix’s LGBTQ+ audience engagement strategy, creating shows like “I Like to Watch.” She’s also created and hosted four queer podcasts, currently Like a Virgin with Rose Dommu. Fran has been working in queer media for almost thirteen years.
As an organizer, Fran’s work has won her the Stonewall Vision Award, Brooklyn’s 30 Under 30, and MTV’s inaugural Logo Legends honor. She’s spoken at institutions like Yale, Juilliard, Harvard, Northwestern, and NYU and worked with brands like Google, HBO, Instagram, and Nike. The New York Times called here a "Queer Champion."