Mateo de la Torre

Mateo de la Torre is a transgender Latino from Tijuana, Mexico, and currently serves as the International Programs Manager at the LGBTQ Victory Institute. His work has focused on addressing the criminalization of transgender people of color and those with low-to-no income including organizing around sex workers’ rights, policing, and conditions of confinement in prisons and detention centers. Mateo has most recently served as Director of Policy and Advocacy at a national prison abolitionist organization, Black and Pink, where he managed the National LGBTQ/HIV Criminal Justice Working Group, and as Racial and Economic Justice Policy Advocate at the National Center for Transgender Equality. Throughout his advocacy he has organized national lobby days, published reports on the interactions of transgender and gender nonconforming people with law enforcement, co-drafted the first federal bill focused on the health and safety of sex workers, and headed up Latinx outreach and engagement for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama Administration. Mateo earned a degree in Sociology and Women’s Studies from California State University, Chico.