Celebrating Black History Month: Meet Ashton Mota

At 16, Ashton Mota is already a seasoned young activist from Lowell, Massachusetts, who speaks publicly about being a black, Dominican-American transgender teen. He came out to his parents on his 12th birthday. “My 12-year-old mentality was like, ‘Oh, if I come out on my birthday, there’s no way that my parents can get mad,’”

After coming out, Ashton got to work. He started a Gay Straight Alliance at his middle school, became a Human Rights Campaign Youth Foundation Ambassador, and gave the opening remarks for GLSEN’s fall conference by the age of 14. It was around the same that that a ballot initiative was introduced in his home state that was an attempt to reverse a 2016 state law allowing people to use bathrooms, locker rooms or other similar facilities that correspond with the gender with which they identify. The question Massachusetts voters would be asked was if they wanted to keep that law.

The “Yes on 3” movement was born, and Ashton became one of the public faces of the campaign. By showing their community real transgender people and telling them how overturning that law would affect the day-to-day lives of trans people, the law was upheld with 2/3 of voters saying “yes.”

When the campaign was over, Ashton was relieved. But he wasn’t finished. In an interview shortly after the vote, he said “It’s not lost on me that as a public face of Yes of 3, I represent thousands of transgender youth of color who haven’t been as lucky as I have been to have a mother who not only affirms me, but is also willing to fight and advocate alongside me.”

He now travels the country giving speeches and advocating for trans young people. “Unfortunately, there are still youth nationwide who have not found their family, let alone their voice,” he told HRC last year. “I consider myself to be an agent of change, and I have learned that change does not come easy or overnight. Instead, we must actively work to make the world a better, safer place for those who are most vulnerable.”

Ashton’s future is bright. And he’s doing all he can to ensure it’s bright for other trans youth of color like himself.