Beloved transgender actress, author, and activist Cecilia Gentili has passed away. Gentili was a towering queer presence in New York City and beyond, an asylum seeker from Argentina who spent her life fighting for the rights of undocumented immigrants, sex workers, and LGBTQ+ people. Friends and family notified the public of her passing via a post on her Instagram page on February 6.
“Our beloved Cecilia Gentili passed away this morning to continue watching over us in spirit,” the tribute read. “Please be gentle with each other and love one another with ferocity. We will be sharing more updates about services and what is to come in the following days. At this time, we’re asking for privacy, time, and space to grieve.”
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Gentili was in the midst of a period of creative flourishing, having released her stunning debut book Faltas: Letters to Everyone in My Hometown Who Isn’t My Rapist in 2022, and performing her autobiographical off-Broadway show Red Ink in 2023. In an interview about the production late last year, Gentili told Them that she hoped the show would entertain people, but also force them to grapple with the often harsh realities of trans life. “I wanted them to laugh, but also to wonder why we have to make trans people’s lives so hard,” she said.
Among her many accomplishments, Gentili was the Director of Policy at the GMHC (formerly Gay Men’s Health Crisis), a New York City-based AIDS service organization, and the founder of Trans Equity Consulting, an organizational development consulting firm that sought to center trans women of color, immigrants, sex workers, and incarcerated people.
As an actress, Cecilia performed one-woman shows including The Knife Cuts Both Ways and appeared as Ms. Orlando on Pose, the groundbreaking FX drama about the experiences of trans women of color set against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York.
