Él Martinez

In collaboration with Youth for Sex Ed and the Healthy Youth Act Coalition, Él has joined in the fight to pass "An Act relative to healthy youth​" (S.268/H.544) which will require any MA public school that already teaches sex ed to provide medically accurate, consent-based, LGBTQ+ inclusive sexual health education.

Photo by Daniela Minidis

While attending Lesley University, Él utilized their organizing skills to demand basic human needs from the administration after serious issues with heat, plumbing, and food insecurity affected the student population. Projects included the establishment of a food pantry, a drive for warm clothing/ blankets, a petition with over 2,000 signatures, several sets of student demands, and a protest on Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. Read more about the protest here.

Él was a member of GLSEN's National Student Council from 2018 to 2020. In their position on the NSC, they produced student-authored content and traveled across the country to model in campaigns with partners such as Hollister and Morphe. They also acted as a representative for high-profile fundraisers and various media opportunities. Él keeps in contact with their fellow NSC grads to this day.

At the age of 15, Él became a legislative advocate for what became known as the "Gender X" Bill in the state of Massachusetts. The goal of this bill was to cement “X” as a designation under the sex classification on documents in the state of Massachusetts. After almost 3 years of lobbying inside and outside the legislature, the DMV instituted the “X” option in late 2019.