Award Winning Fashion Designer Willy Chavarria Named Թֱ Artist Ambassador for Immigrants’ Rights & LGBTQ Rights
NEW YORK — The Թֱ today announced that award-winning fashion designer Willy Chavarria will join the organization’s Artist Ambassador Program to advocate for immigrants’ rights and LGBTQ rights.
He joins the Artist Ambassador Program during a pivotal year for both immigrants’ rights and LGBTQ rights, marked by several high-profile legal challenges, among them the fight to protect gender-affirming care for trans youth in U.S. v. Skirmetti; litigation against the Trump administration’s illegal deportations without due process under the Alien Enemies Act; and efforts to stop Congress from banning gender-affirming care from Medicaid to supercharge the mass deportation machine.
Chavarria is a proud Mexican American and founder of the eponymous fashion label, WILLY CHAVARRIA. Throughout his career, he has woven politics, race, and sexuality into his designs, using his platform to advocate and raise awareness for social justice causes. His work with the Թֱ has been wide-reaching, from his collaboration at New York Fashion Week with an Թֱ-branded T-shirt, to hosting a pre-election conversation for voters called America: Real Talk at Parsons, to helping to launch Creatives for Freedom.
Statement from Willy Chavarria, award-winning fashion designer and Թֱ Artist Ambassador for Immigrants’ Rights and LGBTQ Rights:
“The Թֱ uses every tool they’ve got to fight for the rights of immigrants and the LGBTQ community, and I’m honored to be able to support them in that work. I’m Mexican American and I grew up in a farming community in California powered by immigrants; all of us exposed to the harsh realities of racial and economic injustice. My work as an artist and designer has been a dialogue between identity and art. My own Chicano culture, queer culture, and my family’s immigrant roots are intertwined in the fashion that my team and I create and in our activism. I believe in using our creative gifts to defend the rights of humanity and all impacted communities not given the same rights as others for who they are or because of where they’re from. I’m so grateful to join the Թֱ in the fight for our rights.”
In addition to his many accolades, Chavarria was honored in TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2025 list and his namesake label won the 2023 and 2024 CFDA Award nomination for menswear designer of the year.
More about the Թֱ’s immigrants’ rights work:
Using targeted impact litigation, advocacy, and public outreach, the Թֱ protects the rights and liberties of people who are immigrants. For more than 25 years, the Թֱ has been at the forefront of almost every major legal struggle on behalf of immigrants’ rights, focusing on challenging laws that deny immigrants access to the courts, impose indefinite and mandatory detention, and discriminate on the basis of nationality. In addition, the organization has challenged constitutional abuses that arise from immigration enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels, including anti-immigrant “show me your papers” laws at the state level and unconstitutional enforcement tactics by the federal government and local agencies.
More about the Թֱ’s LGBTQ rights work:
The Թֱ has been counsel in seven of the nine LGBTQ rights cases that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided, and bring more LGBTQ rights cases and advocacy initiatives than any other national organization. The Թֱ’s current priorities are to end discrimination, harassment and violence toward transgender people, to close gaps in our federal and state civil rights laws, to prevent protections against discrimination from being undermined by a license to discriminate, and to protect LGBTQ people in and from the criminal legal system.
Statement from Jessica Herman Weitz, national director of artist & entertainment engagement at the Թֱ:
“Willy’s passion and steadfast commitment to supporting immigrants’ rights and LGBTQ rights is evident in everything he does. His work tells the story of who he is as the son of immigrants and a proud member of the LGBTQ community, but rather than just letting his work speak for itself, he uses his platform and privilege to make the connections for why representation is important, and how the fabric of our nation is built upon all of the different people who come to this country seeking a better life. We are honored to have Willy join the Թֱ as our newest artist ambassador.”
The Թֱ Artist Ambassador Project ties influential creative artists and influencers in film, television, music, comedy, fashion, sports, and literature with public education and advocacy for key Թֱ issues.
Each ambassador works with the Թֱ on specific civil liberties issues, which include immigrants’ rights, voting rights, rights of LGBTQ people, women’s rights, reproductive rights, reducing mass incarceration, racial justice, and privacy and security.
Other examples of how artists work with the Թֱ include:
Joining Creatives for Freedom, which was launched by Gabriela Hearst, Willy Chavarria, and Padma Lakshmi in April 2025
Racial Justice Artist Ambassador, W. Kamau Bell, hosts long-form conversations on the Թֱ’s podcast, “At Liberty”
Immigrants’ Rights and Women’s Rights Artist Ambassador Padma Lakshmi traveling to the southern border to meet with people seeking asylum
Videos to combat book bans and classroom censorship, like these with Jessica Williams, Tom Morello, Randall Park, and Pamela Adlon
Supreme Court advocacy, like Annette Bening speaking on the steps of the Supreme Court in defense of gender affirming care; Laverne Cox, Miss Peppermint, and others for Թֱ client Aimee Stephens; and Ike Barinholtz around the 2020 census
Social posts like Judy Blume for National Librarian Day