Antonio D. Santos 

Antonio D. Santos is a queer, first-generation latinx activist and community organizer from the southwest side of Chicago. In 2018 he co-founded the Gage Park Latinx Council, which runs a community cultural center in the neighborhood where he was raised. The work of GPLXC has been recognized nationally for its immense impact on the majority Latino working-class community. Antonio's work was recently featured in the book Making Mexican Chicago: From Postwar Settlement to the Age of Gentrification by the University of Chicago Press. 

With his experience as a queer activist and knowledge of LGBTQIA+ History, Antonio created a campus-wide faculty and staff Training on LGBTQIA+ identities for the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2019 that is still used to date. Additionally, Antonio has facilitated hundreds of hours of LGBTQIA+ educational programs at the university, High school, and Middle school levels.

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In January 2022, Antonio launched Queer Riot to make LGBTQIA+ history accessible to all. 

Queer Riot works with QTBIPOC educators to provide comprehensive workshops rooted in queer liberation and equality. Workshops can be customized to your business, organization, or school's needs. Our goal is to empower LGBTQIA+ people and create more inclusive environments for them to thrive by educating all. 

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Antonio is currently on the committee for an exhibition on Latinos in Chicago at the Chicago History Museum. He also serves on The Puerto Rican Art Alliance committee for an LGBTQ+ archive that will focus on collecting and preserving Latinx queer culture in the city of Chicago.

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