Mel Manuel is an LGBTQ rights activist, defender of the First Amendment, public school teacher and a parent from Covington, Louisiana. After being Covington High’s valedictorian and graduating summa cum laude from Tulane University in 2006, Mel lived abroad in six countries and returned to Louisiana in 2015 to continue working as an educator. As co-founder of the nonprofit Queer Northshore and board member/spokesperson for the St Tammany Library Alliance, Mel already devotes their time to increasing visibility for underrepresented communities and defending our public libraries from censorship and book bans.