BROOKLYN, N.Y.— Carmen Vàsquez, who spent much of her adult life working to gain full rights for sexual minorities, died this past Wednesday, January 27, at her home of COVID-related illness. She was 72 years old.
The Puerto Rican-born Vàsquez, oldest of seven children, was raised in Harlem and attended City University of New York (CCNY), where she earned a Bachelor's degree in English and a Master's in Education before moving to San Francisco in 1974, where she co-founded The Women's Building, became the Executive Director of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and later became the Coordinator of Lesbian and Gay Health Services for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. After spending two decades in the City by the Bay, Vàsquez moved back to New York City in 1994 to continue her activism as Director of Public Policy for the LGBT Community Center (1994-2003), and as Deputy Director for Empire State Pride Agenda (2003-2007). Her last position before she retired in 2019 was as Coordinator of the LGBT Health and Human Services Unit of the AIDS Institute, New York Department of Health, though she continued to serve as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for the Woodhull Freedom Foundation until her death.
At the 2011 Vicki Awards with (l-r) Ajamu Baraka, Ricci Levy, Pamala Stanley, Carmen Vázquez and Robert Corn-Revere
"We at the Woodhull Freedom Foundation are heartbroken to announce the death of Carmen Vázquez, long-time sexual freedom fighter, Vicki Sexual Freedom award winner, and co-chair of our Board of Directors," the foundation said in a press release. "Carmen died on Wednesday, January 27th of COVID. Carmen supported Woodhull from its founding. She brought with her a wealth of knowledge, a command of our issues and a network of advocates dedicated to the advancement of sexual freedom as a fundamental human right. Woodhull would not be where it is today without her energy, effort, and dedication."
“The loss of Carmen tears open a hole in the heart of the LGBTQ+, social justice, immigration, reproductive justice, and sexual freedom movements. And in mine,” said Rae Carey, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force. “I’m deeply sad that one of our movement’s most brilliant activists is no longer with us. I’ve never known this movement without Carmen in it. A fierce, Puerto Rican butch, who spoke, wrote, organized, mobilized, and willed with her small but powerful body justice and liberation into this world.”
Vàsquez started to come to grips with her sexuality early on, telling an interviewer for Outwords magazine that, "The person I first fell in love with sort of—I was 15 by then, in my sophomore year and she was a friend of the family, Eva, whom I just couldn't keep my eyes off of her. I mean, I totally didn't understand it, but I sort of did because a couple of years earlier, I had been in some camp and had a kiss with a girl and I'm going, no, that was good. That felt really good. So, Eva was a friend of the family and I had this huge attraction to her. My mother became aware of it and basically said I needed to get myself together and that I had no shame. There is this word in Spanish, sin verguenza. It means 'without shame' and I said, 'fuck you.' So, I left home but not too far. I went to live with my grandmother and my father."
Vàsquez went on to have several more relationships with both women and men, all made a bit more difficult because she was attending the religious Cathedral High School at the time, but after her graduation and attendance at CCNY, she decided she needed a change, so she bought a plane ticket to San Francisco—but it was actually at the airport that she discovered what would become her life's mission.
"I did not have an LGBT community in New York," she told Outwords, "but at the airport, I stopped to pick up a book, and the book was Patricia Nell Warren's The Front Runner. I knew nothing about Patricia Nell Warren, knew nothing about the gay scene, the gay Mecca in San Francisco. But I sat on the plane and I read this book and I went really, 'Oh my God, the Castro gay thing, gay Mecca, that's where I'm going.' I was thrilled and blessed, really. My life is blessed like that. Things like that happen, right?"
The full text of Vàsquez's Outwords interview may be found here.
Over the course of her career, Vàsquez received several awards, including the SAGE Award for Excellence in Leadership on Aging Issues.
"One of my proudest moments as an activist was presenting Carmen with the annual SAGE Award at Creating Change 2020, in recognition of her lifetime of courage, fierceness and struggle," said Michael Adams, CEO of SAGE, after hearing of her death. "It's unimaginable that Carmen has passed, but the spirit of someone as fierce as Carmen lives forever and continues to inspire us. Honoring her legacy, it's fitting that we re-name the award Carmen received last year with the name it will carry from this day forward: the Carmen Vàsquez SAGE Award for Leadership in Aging. Rest in power Carmen."
Vàsquez also contributed to several publications, including the books Transcultural Leadership: Empowering the Diverse Workforce (1993), with George F. Simons and Philip R. Harris, and Employment Deconcentration in European Metropolitan Areas (2007), with Eran Razin and Martin Dijst, as well as an article in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, "Spousal Abuse and Violence against Women: The Significance of Understanding Attachment" (1996).
No information has yet been released regarding any memorials planned to honor Carmen Vàsquez, but when such announcements are made, AVN will incorporate them into this article.
