Iya Dammons

Iya Dammons is the Founding Executive Director of Baltimore Safe Haven and visionary activist for the TLGBQIA+ community.

As a proud trans woman of color, Ms. Dammons suffered the direct impacts of race- and gender-based discrimination through her experiences of homelessness, substance use, violence, and survival sex work in the very streets where she now works to provide help to TLGBQIA+ folks living in survival mode. In 2018, she founded Baltimore Safe Haven, a nonprofit organization based on the civil rights model of “each one, teach one”, and “for us, by us.” Today, BSH provides dedicated TLGBQIA+ housing, workforce development, HIV testing, healthcare, legal services, and more – all from the perspective of oneness and solidarity with the community. In her passion for investing in emerging trans leaders, BSH is now the largest employer of TLGBQIA+ lived-experience staff in the state and the only trans-led nonprofit in Baltimore City.

Ms. Dammons is a nationally recognized activist who centers trans rights in our nation’s dialogue. She organized the Black Trans Lives Matter March featured on the cover of Time Magazine in 2020, commissioned the Black Trans Lives Matter mural which stretches across 2 full city blocks in Baltimore known as “The Stroll” among sex workers, and debuted the first Trans Pride event in Baltimore history.

For her exceptional service to the community in terms of scale and impact, Ms. Dammons was named 40 Under 40 TLGBQ Leader in 2021 by BEQ, was honored by the AIDS Health Foundation on World AIDS day, is a member of the AIDS United Transgender Leadership Initiative class of 2022, has been featured frequently in publications such as POZ and the Washington Blade, and is a regular guest speaker at TLGBQIA+ advocacy events around the country.