Leadership

Peyton Rose Michelle is a trans woman based in Lafayette, Louisiana. She proudly serves as the first Executive Director of Louisiana Trans Advocates. She leads LTA’s legislative initiatives and helps lead LocALL (Legislative Organizing Coalition for All LGBTQ+ Louisianans), which LTA co-founded. She also became the first openly transgender person to be elected in the state of Louisiana in July 2020. All-in-all, Peyton combines her talents in advocacy, marketing, and organization to enact change.

Elliot Wade is continuing as an at-large member of the Board of Directors after serving as a media liaison and Founder and Chair of the P.O.W.E.R Committee (People of Color Organizing Ensures Revolution). Additionally, Elliot has cofounded the Louisiana Trans Name Change Fund. This was made possible by the team at Solidaire’s Black Liberation Pooled Fund, who believed in his program Nom Noir to fund name changes exclusively for black trans Louisianians. Elliot has been involved with the work of Louisiana Trans Advocates since 2015, as a 17-year-old in high school.

Natalie Elethorp is the Leader of the NELA Chapter of LTA. She was born and raised in Northeast Louisiana. She has an Associate in Business Technology, Bachelors in Science in Computer Science, and an Associate in Christian Ministry. She is passionate about making sure everyone is treated equally. She comes from 3 years of youth ministry in church and left when she came out as trans. Since then, she has turned her attention to the LGBTQ+ community and increasing the quality of life for the trans community by building relationships in the community and helping anyone when she can. Natalie spends her days working in the tree industry and her evenings taking care of her two kids and two cats.

Daphne has been with Louisiana Trans Advocates for year ensuring that many of our social support groups continue to provide support for trans and gender nonconforming folks across Louisiana.

Dylan Francis Waguespack first got involved with Louisiana Trans Advocates as a youth organizer in 2011, when he served as the Board Secretary in the organization’s first year. He has stayed with LTA since then, helping it grow its membership from a few hundred people in Baton Rouge and New Orleans to over 3000 Louisianans across 12 chapters in every part of the state and leading the organization’s legislative agenda. When he’s not volunteering with LTA, he’s working as a lobbyist and political consultant at his firm, Mercury Media. In the fall of 2018, Dylan was the Creative Director for the successful Yes on Amendment 2 campaign in Louisiana to defeat the last Jim Crow law on the books by requiring unanimous juries for felony convictions. He led the digital and media relations components of the 2017 Louisiana Justice Reinvestment effort to successfully pass ten landmark criminal justice reform bills — together, the most progressive package of criminal justice reforms passed by a state legislature in modern US history. Prior to founding Mercury Media, he served as the Executive Director of Louisiana Progress, the organization where he started his career in 2011 as a junior legislative and communications staffer. Dylan is a New Orleans native and graduate of Ben Franklin High School. He’s lived in Rayne, Baton Rouge, and St. Gabriel, Louisiana. In addition to his work in Louisiana, he is a registered federal lobbyist in Washington, D.C., where he lobbies on federal policy issues at the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.