An Evening with Earl Fowkes Jr.,
Leti Gomez, Mara Keisling,
Brent Minor, Rayceen Pendarvis,
and Bob Witeck

Leti Gomez is a board member and Co-Chair of the Programming Committee of the American LGBTQ+ Museum.  Co-editor of Queer Brown Voices: Personal Narratives of Latina/o LGBT Activism, UTPress 2015. Leti has been a Latina lesbian activist since joining the Gay Chicano Caucus in Houston in 1982. During the 1990’s, she was a president of ENLACE, a social support organization for lesbian and gay Latina/os in the D.C. metro area, and one of the founding co-chairs of LLEGÓ, the first national Latina/o LGBT organization that was headquartered in Washington, D.C. She served as Executive Director of LLEGÓ from 1993-1995.  Leti was among Latinas organizing for the 1991 National Lesbian Conference, served on DC’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, served on the boards of D.C. Council on Women and AIDs, National Lesbian and Gay Health Foundation, AIDs Action, the D.C. Latino Civil Rights Taskforce, and served as a member and secretary of the D.C. Democratic State Committee.  During the 2000’s, she served on advisory boards for the Lesbian Services Program of DC’s Whitman-Walker Clinic, the Rainbow History Project, and the D.C. Latino/a LGBT History Project, and served on the boards of the Whitman Walker Clinic, Many Voices, La Trenza Leadership, and Congregation Bet Mishpachah.  Leti is a member of the Latino Advisory Group of the DC History Center seeking to document the history of Latinos in Washington, DC. She is currently collaborating with Dr. Lourdes Torres on a book documenting the history of LLEGÓ. 

Mara Keisling is an American transgender rights activist and founding Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE). She is currently consulting around trans policy and messaging. 

She was the founder and executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, the nation’s leading social justice advocacy organization winning life-saving change for transgender people. Mara’s strategy and vision guided NCTE’s work from 2003 until the summer of 2021. She led organizational and coalition efforts that won significant advances in transgender equality, including the inclusion of gender identity in the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act from 2007 onward and countless other federal- and state-level wins. 

A proud Pennsylvanian, Mara received her bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University and did graduate work in American Government at Harvard University, stopping a dissertation short of a PhD. Prior to founding NCTE, Mara worked for 25 years in social marketing and opinion research. 

Mara has served on the board of directors of LGBTQ youth group Common Roads and on the steering committee of the Statewide Pennsylvania Rights Coalition. Mara is currently on the Board of Trustees for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and SAGE, a national service and advocacy organization for LGBTQ+ elders. 

Mara also co-authored Injustice at Every Turn, the groundbreaking 2009 report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, and the report of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey. 

As one of the nation’s leading voices for transgender equality, Mara is regularly quoted in national and local print media and has appeared on major television networks, including being part of the first all-transgender panel on a national news show in 2012. 

In recognition of her activism, Mara has won awards from PFLAG; the Equality Forum; GayLaw; the Transgender Law Center; the Harvard Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters Alliance; and Out for Work, among others. 

Rayceen Pendarvis is an event host, performer, community advocate, and lifelong Washingtonian, who is also known as the High Priestess of Love, Queen of the Shameless Plug, Empress of Pride, and Goddess of DC. In the 1980s, Rayceen was a beauty industry professional who advocated for people with HIV and raised funds for burials. In the 1990s, Rayceen was a member of a vocal trio which opened for Robin S and RuPaul; also in that decade and throughout the next, Rayceen was a frequent host of the DC Black Pride Festival. In the 21st century, Rayceen was elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in Ward 5, started hosting annual events for Silver Pride and District of Pride, and, in 2012, launched The Ask Rayceen Show, a community gathering and variety program, which ultimately took place at the Human Rights Campaign building. In 2021, the DC Council passed the Rayceen Pendarvis Recognition Resolution and the Washington Blade named Rayceen their Local Hero. In 2022 and 2024, Rayceen was voted Most Committed Activist in the Washington Blade’s Best of LGBTQ DC Readers’ Poll. Rayceen is active on various social media platforms, which are accessible via Rayceen.com.