10/03/2024
Tributes have been paid to Cecilia Gentili, an activist within the LGBTQIA+ communities, a creative, a health activist and advocate for sex workers, and an reformer of laws that unfairly discriminated against transgender women of colour. She was fifty two years of age and passes on to the realm of our LGBTQIA+ ancestors and also that of indigenous peoples of her home country of Argentina, as Cecilia's grandmother was from the first nation people of the region. When she first moved to New York in 2003, Cecilia was a sex worker, and her experiences on the streets informed her later advocacy work. From 2010 she worked at The City LGBT Centre, and the New York Anti-Violence Project. She gave her expertise and time to a wide variety of organisations including Gay Men's Health Crisis, or GMHC, one of the oldest AIDS and HIV service organisations. Gentili was active in the formation of and led the DecrimNY campaign , which successfully decriminalized sex work in New York and repealed the "Walking while trans law", which criminalized "loitering for the purposes of prostitution" and was used to unfairly target, harass, and arrest transgender women of colour. In recent years, Cecilia gave training with Trans Equity Training, a development consulting firm that sought to center trans women of color, immigrants, sex workers, and incarcerated people. And she joined the Board of Directors of Stonewall Community Foundation, a New York-based, LGBTQ-focused grantmaking organization, where she served until her passing. Cecilia also had interests in international politics and peace and In October 2023, she was among hundreds arrested at a rally calling for a ceasefire in Gaza organized by the anti-Zionist organization Jewish Voice for Peace. In the creative sphere, Cecilia wrote books, appeared on television and reated and co-organized "Transmissions Fest", the first all-trans music festival in NYC, with the proceeds going to LGBTQ+ charities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callen-Lorde_Community_Health_Center
https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/
