Erika Castellanos

Erika Castellanos (born ) is a Belizean human rights activist, advocating especially for HIV-positive people and sex workers. In 2023, she became executive director of Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE). She moved to Mexico in the 1990s, finding a more tolerant climate for LGBTQ people there, especially transgender women. She remained in Mexico to receive the necessary care. Upon her return to Belize, she encountered very marked serophobia in the medical community, after being invited to a training workshop organized by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund).

In April 2017, Castellanos joined Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE), an international LGBT rights organization that works in partnership with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), as a program director. In February 2022, she became acting executive director of the organization, then executive director in January 2023. During this period, she moved to the Netherlands,