Commercials run through homes warning that the United States must prevent tax dollars from being used on “sex changes.” Media narratives paint immigrants as criminals and call for walls to protect our economy. While transgender and Latinx communities are repeatedly demonized in public discourse in the name of democracy, our voices are simultaneously being ignored and silenced. Protecting free expression is crucial to ensuring marginalized people can create counter-narratives that reflect our realities rather than political misinformation. I lead with my identity, unapologetically embracing that I am a transgender woman of color, Ecuadorian and Mexican, and first-generation. To be queer, trans, and Latinx is to be targeted by the law, but it is also to carry a perspective that is rare and vital; one that sees the deep flaws in our society and dares to imagine something better. I am pursuing a legal degree because I have witnessed how access to the legal system shapes access to power; power that is essential to protecting our communities and controlling our speech and narratives. Before law school, I spent several years in nonprofit policy advocacy within the transgender rights movement. As a Policy Manager, I drafted and passed statewide legislation securing funding for trans healthcare, wrote policy memos about the needs of incarcerated TGI people, and coordinated statewide coalitions to create policy platforms on a breadth of community-based issues. Much of my advocacy work has centered Latinx and immigrant transgender communities, helping expand their access to legislative spaces and public resources. These efforts ensured our communities were heard in governmental spaces, elevating perspectives legislators had seldom witnessed before. My commitment to free expression also extends through my arts and cultural organizing. Most recently, I served as Creative Producer for La Vida De La Puta Es Bella, a documentary highlighting the experiences of sex workers living with HIV, and as Creative Director of the Saturn’s Wish Film Festival, which spotlights work by Black, Indigenous, and transgender people of color. These experiences exemplified the importance of protecting the creative endeavors of marginalized communities and how crucial impacted voices are in creating systemic change and shifting public perception. When marginalized communities are excluded from institutions of power, our voices are silenced from the conversations that shape law, policy, and govern rights. Within the legal profession, there is a lack of representation among transgender people. In California, only 0.26% of attorneys identify as transgender. The individuals who fight hardest for a community’s rights are often those who understand its challenges firsthand. If less than 1% of attorneys are trans, then who is fighting for us in the courts? Transgender people of color face extreme violence but our narratives are rarely uplifted, yet urgently needed in the legal profession; it is a bridge I will build throughout my legal career. With the support of Jeffrey J. Douglas First Amendment Scholarship, I will continue my journey of becoming one of few transgender Latinx attorneys and create a pathway for others to do the same.