Anya Marino

Anya A. Marino (she/her) is a singer, educator, and advocate, and is Miss Gay America Femme 2026. During the day, Anya serves as Chief Strategic Programs Officer for Advocates for Transgender Equality (A4TE) and drives the organization’s legal and policy advocacy to protect and advance the rights of trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people. She also directs and instructs the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law’s LGBTQI+ Equality Clinic. Previously, Anya instructed Harvard Law School’s LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic. Additionally, she served as Deputy Legal Director for the ACLU of Florida, where she oversaw the legal department’s voting rights litigation and brought LGBTQI+ and First Amendment cases. Anya is the first openly transgender woman of color to serve in a senior legal position at ACLU and is the first transgender woman of color to teach at Harvard Law School.

Throughout her career, Anya’s work has included representing the most marginalized and vulnerable members of the LGBTQ+ community, including transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people; LGBTQ+ people of color; LGBTQ+ youth; and LGBTQ+ people in southern communities. In 2022, the National Hispanic Medical Association honored her as a trailblazer advancing LGBTQ+ health equality, and Liaison International honored her as one of seven women who shattered the glass ceiling in higher education. Anya graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law and is the law school’s 2022 Rising Star Award recipient and 2023 Jose Bahamonde-Gonzalez IMPACTO Award recipient. 

Anya received her Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from Johns Hopkins University. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, singing opera, collecting labubus, and spending time with her teacup chihuahua (Naya). She is a former Miss Illusions National and Miss Trans USA