Lara Americo

Lara Americo is a transgender activist, musician and artist. She is best known for her advocacy work for transgender rights. She regularly talks about transgender rights on national and international media. Americo was the face of an ad campaign sponsored by the ACLU and Change.org to promote awareness of transgender and gender non-conforming people in North Carolina.
Activism
As a Latinx transgender woman, Lara Americo brings attention to issues faced by transgender and gender queer people of color in her writing, media appearances, and artwork. In a 2016 video interview by the Washington Post she states, "When I go out I have to worry about people noticing my Adam's apple or my broad shoulders and discovering that I am transgender." In 2017 she gave a speech titled "The Illusion of Gender" at TedX Charlotte, challenging the binary gender system. Lara Americo has lived in North Carolina most of her life. The 32-year-old activist, artist, and musician was in Charlotte last year when state lawmakers passed one of the country's most sweeping anti-LGBT laws, House Bill 2, which banned her from the women's bathroom because she's transgender.
In a recent interview with NPR radio show All Things Considered she said the following about HB142 the replacement bill for HB2 which was passed a year prior,“There’s been a lot of education about what the transgender community in North Carolina looks like," Americo says. "Now with HB 142 being passed, they know who we are and what we’re about, but they still refuse to give us the protections that we need.”
Music
Americo is a self-taught musician whose public life as a musician began in 2015, playing both solo and collaboratively with others in multiple venues across North Carolina. In 2016 Lara Americo released her first debut album titled She/They, which was produced with Americo performing all instruments in the album including guitar, bass and drums.

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