OUR 2023 SPEAKERS
& ENTERTAINMENT
RODRIGO HENG-LEHTINEN
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen is the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. He is a transgender policy, advocacy, and messaging expert. As a Cuban-American, openly transgender man, his wide-ranging experience in the LGBTQ movement has covered field organizing, leadership development, fundraising, and media advocacy. In past roles, he trained thousands of volunteers to canvass and phone bank on groundbreaking nondiscrimination and marriage equality campaigns, and organized leadership development programs in transgender communities and LGBTQ communities of color, honing new strategies for social change.
IMARA JONES
Imara, whose work has won Emmy and Peabody Awards, is the creator of TransLash Media, a cross-platform, non-profit journalism and narrative organization, which produces content to shift the current culture of hostility towards transgender people in the US. She was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People on the planet in 2023. As part of her work at TransLash, Imara hosts the TransLash Podcast with Imara Jones, which received the 2023 Outstanding Podcast Award from GLAAD ; as well as the investigative, limited series, The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality which received the Excellence in Podcasting Award from the National LGBTQ+ Journalists Association. Imara is also the first trans person to ever receive an award from the National Black Journalists Association, having garnered the Journalist of Distinction Award in 2022. Also in 2022, Politico named her as one of the 40 power players at the intersection of race, politics, and policy in the United States. In 2020 Imara was featured on the cover of Time Magazine as part of its New American Revolution special edition. In 2019 she chaired the first-ever UN High Level Meeting on Gender Diversity with over 600 participants. Imara has been featured regularly in The Guardian, The Nation, MSNBC, CNBC, NPR, Fast Company and GQ. Imara is a 2021 Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellow and a 2019 Soros Equality Fellow. She serves on the New York City Commission on Gender Equity. She also serves as Chair of the Board for the Transgender Law Center, the nation’s largest transgender non-profit organization, and as Co-Chair of the New Pride Agenda. Imara is als on the boards of the GLSEN, and the LGBTQ+ Museum. Imara is also part of the Move to End Violence.
ALOK VAID-MENON
ALOK (they/them) is an internationally acclaimed author, poet, comedian, and public speaker. As a mixed-media artist their work explores themes of trauma, belonging, and the human condition. They are the author of Femme in Public (2017), Beyond the Gender Binary (2020), and Your Wound/My Garden (2021) and the creator of #DeGenderFashion: an initiative to degender fashion and beauty industries. In recognition of their work, they have been honored as the inaugural LGBTQ Scholar in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania and awarded a GLAAD Media Award and Stonewall Foundation Visionary Award. Over the past decade, they have toured in more than 40 countries, most recently selling out their runs at the Soho Theatre in London, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the Kennedy Performing Arts Center. Their show has been described as "provocative and powerful" (CHORTLE ), a "potent combination of comedy and poetry" (THE SCOTSMAN ), and a "Jaw-dropping celestial event" (TO DO LIST LONDON). On-screen, they will make their feature film debut in Absolute Dominion opposite Patton Oswalt and next can be seen in Emmie Lichtenberg’s film Complicated Order opposite Midori Francis. On television, they have appeared on Hulu’s Planet Sex with Cara Delevingne, ABC’s PRIDE: To Be Seen – A Soul of A Nation, Netflix’s Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness, HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness and The Trans List.
TEZRAH
As an award-winning DJ, Tezrah reigns in her tenth year of DJing in the Washington DC area, specializing in Top 40, electronic dance music, Hip Hop, and other genres. She is hailed as one of DC's and the LGBTQ community's brightest stars. Her sound is eclectic, combining the newest music seamlessly with older classic songs. Winner of the DJ Battle for Her HRC for 2014 and 2015, headliner at the 9:30 Club, headliner for a 5,000+ crowd at Hampton Roads Pride 2016, 2019, and 2022, voted Best DJ by the Washington Blade in 2017 and 2018, debuted at Echostage in 2018, DJ of Half-Time shows for the WNBA's Washington Mystics in 2019, DJ for the President of the United States at the Respect for Marriage Act Signing in 2022, recipient of WeddingWire's Couples Choice Awards in 2023, and a resident DJ at the French Ambassador's Residence among other venues in DC, she has garnered a solid following from all over the region.
As a Fairfax, Virginia native, Tezrah learned to play classical piano at age five, which laid the foundation for her future investigation into computer music programs. Before pursuing a professional career in the music industry, Tezrah graduated with a pre-medical degree in Neuroscience from William & Mary, attended the Harvard School of Design Summer Program, and was accepted into the Graduate Architecture Program at Catholic University. She also played semi-pro soccer before her full immersion into the DJ profession.
WAYS TO ATTEND
FULL EVENT
Single Ticket (in-person):
SOLD OUT
Afterparty Only (in-person):
$50, 8:30 pm – 11:00 pm
Livestream (online):
FREE, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS SPONSORS
