Daunasia Yancey is Deputy Director for the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Advancement, which works to empower, protect and advance the rights, and dignity of all LGBTQ+ residents. She is a freedom fighter working towards the liberation of all oppressed peoples and the creation of a more just world.

Daunasia has served as a leader in the LGBTQ+ community since she was young, having started the first GSA, Gay-Straight Alliance, in a public middle school in Massachusetts in 2004. She went on to work at the Boston Alliance of LGBTQ Youth (BAGLY), Boston GLBTQ+ Social Services (GLASS), Fenway Health, and other community institutions. Yancey responded to the call to action of the movement for Black lives and founded the Boston Black Lives Matter chapter in 2014. She organized mass mobilizations and direct actions and advocated for resources and policies to support Boston’s Black communities.

Yancey is a recipient of the Audre Lorde Founder’s Award from the Hispanic Black Gay Coalition (2016) and the Fueling the Frontlines Award from the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice (2016). She also started The Rest Rail in 2020 out of a commitment to changing the culture of social justice work by providing cost-free vacations to activists of color and embedding rest and wellness in social justice movements.

Yancey is an avid world traveler who enjoys cooking and hosting gatherings to bring people together.