Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen is the Deputy Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. He is a transgender policy, advocacy, and messaging expert. As a transgender man, his wide-ranging experience in the LGBTQ movement has covered field organizing, leadership development, fundraising, and media advocacy. He previously worked with Freedom for All Americans, GLAAD, the Transgender Law Center, Gender Justice LA, and the National LGBTQ Task Force. 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. Most recently, he co-led the successful campaign to update New Hampshire’s nondiscrimination protections to include transgender Granite Staters. Over the course of his career, he has conducted international Spanish-language interviews, including on Univision, Telemundo, and CNN en Español, as well as English-language interviews with outlets such as The New York Times, MSNBC, CNN, and Politico. Rodrigo graduated from Brown University and lives in Washington, D.C. He serves on the Board of Directors of AsylumConnect, a non-profit connecting LGBTQ migrants fleeing persecution with resources in the US and Canada.
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen
The Work Ahead: LGBTQ+ Legal Issues Under the Biden/Harris Administration and the 117th Congress