Steph Niaupari, M.A. (they/elle), is the Sr. Manager at Grindr for Equality at Grindr, where they build global partnerships with LGBTQ+ activists, public health agencies, and service organizations to engage and empower users around safety, advocacy, and sexual health. As a trans non-binary Ecuadorian, Steph navigates multiple identities and seven languages, bringing over 12 years of experience in gender equity and public policy.

They are the Founder of Plantita Power, a grassroots food and body liberation movement centering QTBIPOC in Washington, D.C. Each year, they distribute 3,000+ seed kits and seedlings to support food sovereignty, ancestral practices, and trans-affirming wellness. The project blends ecological care with healing justice through gardening workshops, plant shares, and mutual aid.

Steph serves on the UNDP LGBTI Data Project Advisory Committee, advancing inclusive development through better data collection and use, and is an Advisory Member of The Pleasure Project, promoting global sex-positive health education.

Previously, Steph led national Latino outreach for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ COVID-19 campaign, ensuring multilingual, culturally responsive messaging reached LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities. As Vice President of the Latinx History Project, they reimagined DC Latinx Pride as a space centering trans, queer, and disabled Latinx voices.

Steph holds an M.A. in International Development, dual B.As in International Studies and Spanish from Gallaudet University, and an A.A. in Deaf Studies from CUNY LaGuardia. They are currently completing a thesis on non-binary recognition in Ecuador at FLACSO Ecuador. Now based in Washington, D.C., Steph is deeply committed to fostering collective care, food justice, and supporting mutual aid efforts rooted in QTBIPOC liberation.

Lyra is co-chair, and founder, of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America’s Bodily Autonomy Trans & Queer Liberation Campaign and member of the Bodily Autonomy Coordinating Committee. Through her tenure, she has worked tirelessly to organize for, and win, concrete improvements for her trans siblings across the DMV. 

She initiated the Campaign's Project Sanctuary, increasing trans protections in northern Virginia. Under her leadership, Alexandria and Arlington County have unanimously enacted sanctuary policy resolutions that declaratively affirm and protect the trans community’s rights to bodily autonomy, gender affirming care and full equal rights. Since November 2024, she has helped lead and coordinate significant regional and national rapid response campaigns fighting the right-wing attacks on the trans community. 

Lyra mounted pressure campaigns against the NDAA gender affirming care ban, the Title IX bills that would redefine sex and gender and coordinated with other leaders to galvanize the effective response and campaign against Children’s National Hospital’s suspension of gender affirming care. That campaign generated more than 100,000 letters to the Office of the DC Attorney General, Deputy Mayor for Health and executives at Children’s National and culminated with a picket line rally outside the DC Attorney General’s office that brought together labor groups, parents of impacted minors, and other allies. Shortly after the rally, Children’s resumed care for existing patients. 

Beyond these campaigns, Lyra has helped lead the launch of Trans Day of Vision in DC, mentored new organizers & activists, extended mutual aid efforts, grew a national LGBTQIA+ archiving effort, and organized rallies and appearances across the region. She is also a software engineer working on reducing preventable deaths through improvements in health care delivery, as well as a parent of a teenager, and in her limited spare time enjoys reading and live music.

Hayden Gise is a legendary union organizer and one of the most accomplished Trans organizers of our time. Based in Washington, DC, she organizes and negotiates union contracts for workers across the region. A proud Trans Woman and Dyke, Hayden organizes with the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America and has led key demonstrations with the Bodily Autonomy Working Group. Her work reflects an unwavering commitment to justice, solidarity, and collective liberation. 

Pip Baitinger (she/her) is a community organizer, public servant, and writer dedicated to building and uplifting the communities she inhabits toward collective liberation. 

She serves as the LGBTQ+ veterans outreach specialist for the DC Mayor’s Office and is currently focused on organizing veteran and trans-specific programming for World Pride 2025. In her current role, she is also dedicated to ensuring that DC veterans receive the healthcare and services they are entitled to, no matter their background or identity. 

Pip is a proud queer trans woman veteran and served four years in the active-duty Air Force. Before joining the Mayor’s Office, she studied international relations in Italy and DC at Johns Hopkins SAIS. At Johns Hopkins she studied and researched how technology impacts LGBTQ+ communities globally. 

Her writing has been published in academic journals such as Democracy and Society, Indian Public Policy Review, SAIS perspectives, and in local small presses around the city. In addition to an M.A. in international relations from Johns Hopkins, Pip holds a B.S. in Economics from Penn State. In her free time, you can find Pip biking around the city, at one of the local punk concerts in DC, or reading/writing.