Elle Moxley (formerlyElle Hearns, born 1986/1987) is an Americantransgender rights activist. She co-founded theBlack Lives Matter Global Network, where she served as a strategic partner and organizing coordinator, and founded TheMarsha P. Johnson Institute, where she served as the first executive director.[1][2][3][4]
Moxley was born inColumbus, Ohio.[1] She grew up in a single-parent home with two sisters. She struggled being raised as a "little black boy who was existentially trapped in a boy’s body, but was definitely very much so female."[5] Before discovering that she was transgender, she thought she was gay, and dealt with suicidal thoughts as she thought being gay was a sin.[5]
In 2013, Moxley co-founded the Black Lives Matter Global Network.[1] As a strategic partner and organizing coordinator, she helped develop policy for the network, including the 2016 policy platform "A Vision for Black Lives".[1][2][3] She co-organized a National Day of Action in 2015 to bring attention to the black trans women who were killed that year.[6]
Moxley founded The Marsha P. Johnson Institute, where she served as the first executive director.[2] The mission of the institute, which launched in 2019, is to train and support blacktrans women andgender-nonconformingfemmes.[9][10][11] In October 2025,Chastity Bowick was announced as the new executive director of the institute.[12]
In February 2017, Moxley, along with other trans activists, criticized thepussyhat that had become a symbol of the2017 Women's March, stating that the movement needs to be truly intersectional and consider the "anatomy of all people".[19]
In August 2017, Moxley and fellow organizers at the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, along with other trans activists, spoke out against an episode ofThe Breakfast Club radio show where remarks were made about trans women. ComedianLil Duval joked about killing a sex partner if she turned out to be transgender, and hostCharlamagne Tha God, while noting that killing a trans person was ahate crime, stated that women not disclosing their trans status were "taking away a person's power of choice" and "should go to jail or something". Moxley and her colleagues circulated a petition calling for the program to be taken off the air.[20][21]
On September 30, 2017, Moxley spoke at The March for Black Women in Washington, D.C. about the sisterhood between transgender andcisgender black women.[22]
^Shah, Purvi;Battle, Colette Pichon; Warren, Vincent; Garza, Alicia; Hearns, Elle (2015). "RadTalks: What Could Be Possible if the Law Really Stood for Black Lives?".CUNY Law Review.19 (1).
^Williams, Lauren N.; Arceneaux, Michael; Robertson, Regina R.; Sykes, Tanisha A.; De Luca, Vanessa K.; Christian, Tanya A. (April 18, 2017)."ESSENCE Presents 'Woke 100 Women'". Essence.Archived from the original on September 11, 2017. RetrievedOctober 3, 2017.
