Elias Vasquez is a first-generation graduate of the University of Houston-Downtown, where they studied Criminal Justice and Psychology. They are a non-binary Latinx trans-masculine queer individual who works as a Liberation Advocate at the TGIJP Black Trans Cultural Center in San Francisco, California. As a native of Houston, Texas impacted by both the system of mass incarceration and recent anti-trans legislation, Elias is motivated by personal experiences to commit to social justice. They work from an abolitionist feminist-oriented
framework, believing that policy and the prison industrial complex have consistently been used to disenfranchise communities of color. Elias’s experience in law school has fueled their motivation to combat and create legislation affecting their community. Additionally, Elias is a political poet and writer who believes that political education and love are crucial in the fight against the powers that be.