Biography

Eliel Cruz is an organizer, activist, writer and the Director of Communications for New York City Anti-Violence Project, an organization dedicated to ending violence against LGBTQ people and HIV-affected communities through free counseling, legal services, advocacy, and education.

Eliel is a co-organizer for the Brooklyn Liberation March: An Action for Black Trans Lives, which drew an estimated 20,000 people in June 2020. He was recognized in Out Magazine’s #Out100 list for both his work at the New York City-Anti-Violence Project and for his pivotal activism in Justice for Layleen Polanco, a 27-year-old Afro-Latinx trans woman who died in solitary confinement on Rikers Island in June 2019. He is currently directing a documentary on Layleen’s life and the conditions that led to her untimely death.

Eliel has spoken at universities and conferences across the country on issues pertaining to the LGBTQ community, media representation, as well as faith and sexuality. Speaking engagements include Harvard Law School, University of Texas at Austin, MSU Denver, Suffolk University, University of Georgia, Texas A&M, University of Florida, Bowdoin College, New York University, Middlebury College, University of Colorado in Boulder and more.

His advocacy work has appeared in print on the September issue of Vogue, Anotherman Magazine, Gay Times Magazine, Garage Magazine, New York Magazine, and the front page of The New York Times, as well as digital publications in Dazed, Vox, Seventeen, Buzzfeed, and more. Eliel’s writing can be seen in The Washington Post, Upworthy, NBC, Mic News, The Advocate, Teen Vogue, HuffPost, Daily Dot, Everyday Feminism, Sojourners, DETAILS, GQ, Quartz, Rolling Stone, them., Shondaland, The New York Times and many other outlets.  

Eliel is a storyteller. He believes in using the privileges afforded to him and his platform to create space for others to be able to share theirs.