Emilia Decaudin is a 21-year-old transgender rights activist, Democratic Party offi cial, and recent graduate of the City College of
New York.
Emilia fi rst entered the world of politics at age 16, when she volunteered on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign for president. Since
then, she has been involved in numerous campaigns for federal, state, and local offi ce.
She is also a founding member of Zoomers Caucus and of the New York Progressive Action Network.
In September 2018, Emilia was elected as the youngest-ever and fi rst out transgender member of the New York State Democratic
Committee, representing the 94th Assembly District in Westchester County.
The following October, she spearheaded a successful effort to amend the rules of the State Committee to remove unnecessary
references to the gender binary and to accommodate the election of gender non-binary members. She is continuing her efforts to
foster inclusion of transgender and non-binary New Yorkers through her project Binary-Free NYC.
In June of this year, Emilia was elected as one of the fi rst two openly transgender Democratic district leaders in New York City,
representing the 37th Assembly District in Queens.
Even as she sought election to a party position in Queens, Emilia was willing to speak out against a consultant to a powerful city
councilmember from the borough, Donovan Richards — who went on to win the June Democratic primary for borough president —
when that consultant posted a series of infl ammatory comments about transgender and non-binary individuals.
“Using the term womxn allows those non-binary people to be included in spaces that they ‘obviously’ deserve to be in without
invalidating their gender or forcing them to identify as something they are not,” Decaudin wrote in response to the consultant’s social
media posts.
In an interview with Gay City News, Decaudin argued that the infl ammatory rhetoric she challenged falls into the same category
as homophobia, sexism, xenophobia, and racism because although Richards’ consultant said she does not hate, the language was
voiced in a way that could be deemed dehumanizing and invalidating of peoples’ identities. Decaudin argued that candidates for
borough president should be mindful of the inclusive policies and practices that will be expected of them should they be elected.
“I don’t see why people who are trans, like me, or otherwise allies should put their faith in someone who seems to be complacent
with that kind of behavior,” she said.
In her spare time, she is a freelance web and graphic designer.
Emilia was born and raised in Westchester County in a family of French immigrants. She currently resides in Sunnyside, Queens.
16 Gay City News Impact Awards 2020
HONOREE
EMILIA DECAUDIN
DEMOCRATIC DISTRICT LEADER, 37TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT IN QUEENS