Today, tens of thousands are marching in the nation's capital as part of the Equality March for Unity and Pride.

Among them is march co-chair Catalina Velasquez, communications director at Casa Ruby, a community center in Washington, D.C.

Velasquez is a Georgetown grad and former staffer for Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. But don't let the march's proximity to the White House fool you: As much as it's a show of strength to the Trump administration, Velasquez says it's really directed at the LGBT community itself.

"The march is not framed in response to the 45th buffoon in the White House," she tells NewNowNext. "It's about asking the questions 'What does it mean to be undocumented and transgender? What does it mean to be bisexual and disabled?' Not even some in our community take these issues seriously."

For Velasquez, the goal is to get the attention of LGBT people and allies who may been involved in the fight for marriage equality, "but really haven't addressed issues in the larger community like racial equality, trans rights[ or] reproductive health. Institutions are not people, and the people not always served by the institutions."

As a trans Latinx and an undocumented immigrant, Velasquez is among the most vulnerable in that larger community. Just by speaking out, she could be inviting governmental scrutiny.

But to do nothing, she says, was not an option—even if it costs Velasquez her freedom.

"I'm not concerned about my status, because the alternative is silence—and silence led to the detention and deportation of my family. I have no other option but to speak up on behalf of my family, and the 75 people who are held in detention on any given night. The queer people denied access to HIV medicine, to hormones. The alternative is more death."

When queer and trans people get deported, we get deported to a death sentence," she adds. "It's not just sending back to Venezuela or Saudi Arabia. People die when you do that. And it sends the message that 'We don't care about queer people.'"