Community Service: An individual who is recognized as an up-and-coming leader within the LGBTQ community or whose contribution to the community in the past year was of particular significance.
Ana Laura Martínez (she/her/ella) was raised in Tijuana and San Diego. Coming from a working-class and immigrant household, she is committed to fighting injustices for her community and family.
While a student at UC San Diego, she was involved in organizing for educational equity, immigration rights, labor, and anti-racist campus measures. She received her undergraduate degrees in Ethnic Studies and History from UCSD and is working on her Master’s degree in Latin American Studies.
As a student, Ana Laura has organized with SEIU-Good Jobs L.A. through the UCLA Labor Center, AFSCME 3299, and UAW 2865, working with various unions in fighting for economic justice. She also worked at UCSD as a teaching assistant, grounding her teaching philosophy on critical thinking, empowering
students to read the world differently, and inciting commitment to social justice outside of the classroom.
She currently works at the Center on Policy Initiative, where she leads the worker justice priorities with partners to ensure worker protections, and manages the Students for Economic Justice (SEJ) Summer Fellowship, a program that aims to build the pipeline of organizers in San Diego to create systemic change.
Outside of her work she has been involved in mutual aid, reproductive justice, and LGBTQIA+ advocacy and organizing. These spaces have been intentional in naming the systems of oppression, uplifting the systemic changes needed for communities to thrive, and creating spaces of learning. Ana Laura is guided by the values of solidarity, of centering Black, People of Color, people with disabilities, trans, nonbinary, queer folks, and deeply believing that another world where all folks are free is possible.
Ana Laura will be honored at the Spirit of Stonewall Rally on Friday, July 16, 2021. Learn more about the rally, the other awardees, and the event here.
San Diego Pride raises funds primarily through festival ticket and beverage sales, and through sponsorships, and exhibitor fees. These funds support San Diego Pride’s community philanthropy which has distributed more than $2.5 million in advancement of its mission to foster pride, equality, and respect for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities locally, nationally, and globally.
