Gabriel Acevero

Gabriel Acevero (born October 23, 1990) is a Trinidadian–American organizer, activist and politician representing Maryland's 39th House district.

Acevero was born on October 23, 1990, in San Fernando, Trinidad; the youngest of six children to Ingrid (née Renn), a government employee and labor activist, and Michael Acevero, an insurance agent.

His paternal family are Afro-Venezuelan and his mother is Afro-Trinidadian.

Acevero was raised in the town of Couva and attended Richmond Street Boys Anglican School in the capital, Port-of-Spain.

Gino Renne, president of Montgomery County Government Employees Organization Local 1994 (MCGEO), had expressed concern over Acevero's support of the legislation, asking him to attend a meeting where Acevero claims Renne and others pressured him to drop Anton's Law.

Renne fiercely denied Acevero's accusations, calling them a "bold-face lie".

During the 2021 legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly passed Anton's Law as part of the Maryland Police Accountability Act of 2021 and it took effect on October 1, 2021.

He graduated from Couva Government Secondary School in 2007, where he excelled on the school's debate team and his family immigrated to the United States later that year, settling in Maryland.

Acevero started college at 16, earning his associate degree in international relations from Montgomery College and a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in 2011 at the age of 20.

He was a student activist in college, volunteered for political campaigns and was active in the Maryland Democratic Party.

Acevero worked as an issue organizer after college, first on the successful Question 4 (Maryland Dream Act) and Question 6 (Marriage Equality) campaigns in 2012—Maryland became the first state to approve both measures at the ballot box—and then in 2014 on transgender equality.

He was recognized by the National Black Justice Coalition as one of its "100 Black LGBTQ Emerging Leaders to Watch" for his advocacy and efforts to reform Maryland's justice system in 2015.

A Black Lives Matter activist, Acevero helped organize and was involved in protests during the 2015 Freddie Gray unrest in Baltimore City. Acevero joined the coalition of activists and organizations that advocated for the repeal of Maryland's Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights (LEOBR) following Freddie Gray's death.

Prior to running for office, he was involved in decarceration efforts in Maryland.

Acevero joined the Maryland Fight for $15 campaign and organized low wage workers and community groups to support raising the minimum wage in Montgomery County.

The County Council overwhelmingly approved the bill and it was signed into law in 2017.

In December 2017, Acevero was among a group of activists, labor leaders, clergy and lawmakers who were arrested on the steps of Capitol Hill for engaging in unlawful demonstration.

The group was hoping to pressure Congress to include legislation for undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children (known as DREAMers).

He was also behind the push that led to the renaming of a Rockville, Maryland elementary school in honor of gay civil rights leader Bayard Rustin.

In his testimony before the Montgomery County Board of Education, Acevero criticized the Trump administration's decision to remove LGBTQ people off the US Census and the transgender military ban: "We have a hostile administration that is intent on erasing LGBTQ folks, recently taking us off the Census and banning transgender Americans from serving their country. Now more than ever we need to affirm LGBTQ youth, and that's why Bayard Rustin is such a powerful name for this school".

The Montgomery County Board of Education voted to approve the renaming of the school.

Acevero ran in the three-member house district which includes parts of Gaithersburg, Germantown, Clarksburg, Montgomery Village, and Washington Grove.

On November 6, 2018, Acevero finished in first place with 31% of the vote and became the first openly gay Afro-Latino, and one of the youngest people, elected to the Maryland House of Delegates.

Acevero is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

He won the Democratic primary on June 26, 2018, besting three-term incumbent Delegate Kirill Reznik and two-term incumbent, Delegate Shane Robinson in the hotly contested primary.

He faced nominal Republican opposition in the general and was elected on November 6, 2018, at the age of 28.

Acevero was sworn in on a copy of James Baldwin's 1963 book, The Fire Next Time and assumed office on January 9, 2019.

In the 2022 Democratic primary, other members of the house district campaigned for another Democrat to replace Acevero, who nonetheless won reelection to the ticket.

Acevero sits on the House Appropriations Committee and is a member of the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus, the Latino Legislative Caucus and the Montgomery County Delegation.

Acevero is openly gay.

In 2022, Acevero voted in support of cannabis legalization and voted in favor of HB 1, "Constitutional Amendment – Cannabis – Adult Use and Possession."

He was one of two Democrats to vote against House Bill 837, another Cannabis Reform bill, to study the racial impacts of cannabis legalization, create a public health fund, alter civil and criminal penalties and create a process of expungement for possession of the drug.

Acevero stated that while he supported cannabis legalization, he believed that there were "aspects of legalization that he believes need to addressed before the state can move forward."

He said the bill "does not create true racial equity related to minority ownerships of licensed growing, processing and dispensing businesses."

Delegate Acevero introduced his own bill HB1342, "Cannabis - Legalization and Regulation (Cannabis Legalization and Equity Act)", in 2022 which would legalize "the possession and use of a certain amount of cannabis by a person of at least a certain age; providing for expungement of records, dismissal of charges, and commutation of sentences in certain cases involving cannabis-related charges; providing for a system of regulation of the sale of cannabis by the Maryland Department of Health and local jurisdictions; and providing for the taxation of the sale of cannabis in the State."

Although he serves on the Appropriations Committee, Acevero has primarily introduced criminal justice legislation to include police reform.

He has sponsored legislation to restrict police officers' use of force, and to repeal Maryland's Law Enforcement Officer's Bill of Rights.

During his first session as a delegate, Acevero introduced "Anton's Law", a bill that reformed the Maryland Public Information Act, to require transparency in investigations of complaints against law enforcement officers.

The bill was named for Anton Black, a 19-year-old African-American man who died in police custody in Greensboro, Maryland.

In July 2020, Acevero accused local union leaders of using "strong-arm tactics" to slow down Anton's Law.