Carmen Vázquez and friends
Carmen Vázquez
Carmen Vázquez lived and breathed activism in LGBTQ+ and women’s rights from her birth in 1949 until her death in 2021. Her efforts in these fields are a testament to her commitment to the most vulnerable populations among us.
Born to a seamstress mother and a WWII veteran father, Carmen faced enormous struggles growing up in New York City after leaving Puerto Rico at only four years old. She was often mischievous in school, having attended several Catholic schools, and found it difficult to balance her childhood and her need to be intellectually challenged. Her family lived in poverty, and, with 6 other siblings, Carmen found personal space rare and consistently felt the stress of being the oldest sibling.
Once she was given more advanced courses, Vázquez excelled in school and went on to graduate from City College of New York; here, she discovered her affinity for activism through engaging in protests against the Vietnam War, advocating for open admissions at CUNY, and forming a department dedicated to Black and Puerto Rican Studies.
Vázquez relocated to San Francisco in 1979 and began her advocacy for LGBTQ+ life in what some people refer to as the era of sexual liberation. She worked for San Francisco Women’s Centers as well as the Women’s Building, where she had to respond to violence and protests against the organization.
Six years later, Vázquez worked for the San Francisco Department of Health as the Director of Gay and Lesbian Health Services. Then, upon her return to New York City, she worked as the Director of Policy for the LGBT Community Center until 2003, when she accepted a position with the Empire State Pride Agenda as their Deputy Director. She remained there until 2007.
Carmen Vázquez
As her final position before retirement, Vázquez spent 11 years working for the NYS AIDS Institute in her capacity as Director of LGBT Health Services. Her work helped increase AIDS funding for women and people of color. She is responsible for founding a nationwide coalition dedicated to reproductive justice and LGBT issues, for advocacy of immigrants and marginalized populations, and for her support of marriage equality and liberation.
Carmen Vázquez passed away due to COVID-19 complications in 2021. Her work is perpetuated through her numerous awards and recognitions, including an honorary Law Degree from the CUNY School of Law, and her work is honored in the Sophia Smith Archive’s Voices of Feminism Project.
She knows there is still work to be done: as she told the Ford Foundation, “Equality is not where we need to stop, justice is where we need to continue to move forward.”
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