On Monday, two people were detained for allegedly distributing the cocaine and fentanyl that led to the death of transgender advocate Cecilia Gentili.
Cecilia Gentili was 52 when she tragically overdosed on heroin in her New York City apartment on February 6th, according to an examination and US Attorney Breon Peace.
Antonio Venti and Michael Kuilan, both of whom have been charged, allegedly sold the medication to Gentili on February 5.
A picture of Cecilia Gentile lies at the temple during her funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on February 15, 2024 in New York City.
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The Brazilian immigrant was a distinguished advocate, advocating for immigrants, the trans society, sex worker rights and people living with HIV.
Artists including Billy Porter and Indya Moore attended her funeral, and some important trans activists, including Ceyenne Doroshow, Liaam Winslet, and Gentili’s companion, Peter Scotto, even spoke.
” She was an angel”, said Scotto in a statement following her death. She had immediately intervene to assist those in issue because our phone would ring constantly in the middle of the night. She’d always be there and answer that visit. But to me, she was my mate. We shared a lot of love and laughter each day as we awoke. I’m going to consider that with me permanently”.
On February 15, 2024, people in New York City attend Cecilia Gentili’s cremation in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
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Her funeral was held at Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral and sparked controversy among some local Catholic officials, including the New York Archdiocese, which called the death” blasphemous and deceptive”.
The Archdiocese claimed that the Cathedral had no idea that our pleasant and prayer may become degraded in such a blasphemous and deceptive way because it only knew that members of his family and friends were asking for a Catholic’s funeral Mass.
On April 24, 2014, trans activist Cecilia Gentili poses for a picture at the Oxford University Press ‘ New York headquarters.
Bebeto Matthews/AP
Gentili’s loved people denounced the censure, saying all are supposed to be encouraged.
” Cecilia was deserving of holiness because of her impeccable labor and impact on so many lives and hearts.” Cecilia deserved this historic honor of the monumental funeral service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and to be cemented in history as a mother of multiple movements – – of sex worker, immigration, trans, and affirming health care movements”, said Oscar Diaz, the director of communications at Trans Equity Consulting, an organization that Gentili founded. ” Her humour, creativity, humour, and joy may be missed by the years she mothered”.
