--- title: Honoring Transgender Activist Cecilia Gentili's Legacy description: Transgender activist and artist Cecilia Gentili's family members describe what it’s like to celebrate Pride without her. canonical: https://time.com/6993741/transgender-activist-cecilia-gentili-legacy/ author: Solcyré Burga article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-06-29T12:30:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:43:56.419Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Honoring Transgender Activist Cecilia Gentili's Legacy og:description: Transgender activist and artist Cecilia Gentili's family members describe what it’s like to celebrate Pride without her. og:url: https://time.com/6993741/transgender-activist-cecilia-gentili-legacy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted14dc468eefd6c3/698a5849096a9478af6b0ab2/cecilia-gentili-legacy-trans-activist.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: Transgender Activist Cecilia Gentili, New York City og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Honoring Transgender Activist Cecilia Gentili's Legacy twitter:description: Transgender activist and artist Cecilia Gentili's family members describe what it’s like to celebrate Pride without her. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted14dc468eefd6c3/698a5849096a9478af6b0ab2/cecilia-gentili-legacy-trans-activist.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Honoring Transgender Activist Cecilia Gentili's Legacy > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=4b6ec1ea-e60e-402a-a0d0-80fd30cfedf1&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: First Pride Without Mother: The Legacy of Cecilia Gentili [Watch (HLS stream): First Pride Without Mother: The Legacy of Cecilia Gentili](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/goV5ZR5U.m3u8) (4:48)  _Published 2024-06-28. In her absence, many of Gentili’s family members say they haven’t been able to soak in this Pride month, which can already feel distanced from transgender and queer communities of color._ by [Solcyré Burga](https://time.com/author/solcyre-burga/), [Kara Milstein](https://time.com/author/kara-milstein/), [Joey Lautrup](https://time.com/author/joey-lautrup/) and [Rachel Sonis](https://time.com/author/rachel-sonis/) Jun 29, 2024 12:30 PM UTC In her absence, many of Gentili’s family members say they haven’t been able to soak in this Pride month, which can already feel distanced from transgender and queer communities of color. by [Solcyré Burga](https://time.com/author/solcyre-burga/), [Kara Milstein](https://time.com/author/kara-milstein/), [Joey Lautrup](https://time.com/author/joey-lautrup/) and [Rachel Sonis](https://time.com/author/rachel-sonis/) Jun 29, 2024 12:30 PM UTC Since the unexpected passing of their sister Cecilia Gentili, Victoria Von Blaque, a consultant at New York City-based firm Trans Equity Consulting, has not had a chance to process their grief. “I kind of flinch when I hear her name,” they say. “It is still so raw.” Gentili—a beloved transgender activist, artist, and founder of the consulting agency where Von Blaque currently works—passed away [only four months ago](https://time.com/6695662/cecilia-gentili-funeral/), and has left an enduring mark on the lives of her family, who describe Gentili as “radiant,” “loving,” “hot as hell,” and above all: “[Mother](https://time.com/6976939/mother-queer-trans-ballroom/).” “I'm still processing a world without my sister, my best friend, my everything,” says LaLa Holston-Zannell, a senior campaign strategist at the ACLU. “Being a black trans woman, having someone that you can share everything without judgment, without asking anything of me, without using \[their\] power over me. \[It\] is a genuine love.” **Read More:** [_Scenes From Trans Activist Cecilia Gentili’s Funeral as Mourners Fill St. Patrick’s Cathedral_](https://time.com/6695662/cecilia-gentili-funeral/) Holston-Zannell and Von Blaque’s grieving journey, and that of many of Gentili’s loved ones, is also happening in the midst of the month-long, typically celebratory, season of Pride. In her absence, many of Gentili’s family members say they haven’t been able to soak in this [Pride month](https://time.com/6985045/why-pride-month-is-in-june/), which can already feel distanced from transgender and queer communities of color. “I'm old school. Pride was a protest. Pride was a rally. Pride was not a bunch of beautiful colors,” says Von Blaque. “Pride to me, it's just a reminder of the work that she has done, her true legacy.” Gentili’s passing also comes amidst an [epidemic of violence](https://reports.hrc.org/an-epidemic-of-violence-2023) against trans and gender non-conforming people in the U.S., and broader legislative efforts to limit access to healthcare, sports, and more. Gentili is well-remembered as a spokesperson for various communities. Her advocacy on the legislative front led to the repeal of the [“Walking While Trans” ban](https://www.nyclu.org/press-release/nyclu-statement-repeal-and-seal-walking-while-trans-ban#:~:text=NYCLU%20Statement%20on%20the%20Repeal%20and%20Seal%20of%20the%20Walking%20While%20Trans%20Ban,-LGBTQ%2B%20Rights&text=Share%3A,and%20violations%20under%20this%20statute.) that barred loitering for the “[purpose of prostitution](https://nyassembly.gov/Press/?sec=story&story=95254#:~:text=Speaker%20Carl%20Heastie%20and%20Assemblymember,women%20and%20women%20of%20color.),” which in practice unjustly targeted trans women of color. Gentili also helped launch the [Coin Clinic](https://callen-lorde.org/coin/), a free healthcare program for sex workers, and founded Transmission Fest, New York City’s first-ever trans music festival in 2023\. On June 26, during the second iteration of the festival, Ali Forney Center, a nonprofit that protects LGBTQ+ youth from homelessness, announced a new house for trans youth that will have Gentili’s name. “I think if Cecilia were here, she would want us to remember that at the core of Pride is community,” says Oscar Diaz, one of Cecilia’s daughters. “One of Cecilia’s biggest accomplishments…was her ability to use her voice and artistry as a tool for storytelling. And she utilized so many of her experiences as a trans woman, as an immigrant, as a sex worker, as someone who used drugs to be able to construct a world that was better for all of those, intersectional experiences.” TIME spoke to Holston-Zannell, Von Blaque, and Diaz about their first pride season without Gentili, and how they—as well as the world—should continue to honor her work and legacy. ## Transcript This day has been so bitter sweet. Every 20 minutes, I have had literal chills because I know that what we are doing and holding this space is sacred, it would have made Cecilia so happy. We are holding this space with so much love, so much joy, and we also are carrying our grief. We must lean on the purpose and the values that Cecilia carried throughout her life. And in our day to day, how we hold her spirit and her legacy. I'm still processing a world without my sister, my best friend, my everything that was my confidant. Grief is still, you know, a breeze through all of our community. It still passes by. And it's just like this is still not real. Like how is this possible. They would never be an Suga Tilly. She was an immigrant. She was a sex worker. She was all of these things that you look at any other story. People were like, She did all this. She wouldn't believe it. Just wanted to have a space where we can all be with each other and experience joy. I think the easiest way to describe Cecilia was a mother. She would view you so holistically and would actively go out of her way to find ways to nourish you, whether that was a compliment or an affirmation or like, material support connecting you to resources or housing or access to hormones and testosterone. My very first memory of Cicilia was 20 maybe 21 years ago. I was obsessed with Mac makeup back then. And I noticed her color, and I asked her. I was like, Is that Mac? And she was like, Yes. She like, Do you like it? I said, Absolutely. It's beautiful. She was like, You can have it. Would literally give you the clothe off her back. Literally, lipstick off her lips as she could. I gave her the name Olivia Pope. She was a trans Olivia Pope. Everything was always handled with her. Would probably want us to remember that she was hot as hell and sexy generations to come need to know about Cecilia and her history. When I say Cecilia, you say Mother, Cecilia, Ma Cecilia, Ma Cecil. Cecilia would have wanted us to remember that pride was a riot and a call to action for us to fight for our liberation. What Pride is now has nothing to do with people who look like me, people who look like Cecilia. When I think of, I guess, if anything about Cecilia in this season is, like, finding more accomplices that are out here trying to make sure that trans women and trans people in general are safe and are being treated equitably. She would tell the world that, like, like I said, just because it's July 1, we don't disappear. As only a true mother would, she would want us to think of the ways in which we can nourish each other in community and neursh our full holistic selves. To want everyone to really to this party, to celebrate, to be authentically themselves. Like, it's time for people to put those facades down of what you think you're supposed to be or how you're supposed to show up or trying to follow everyone else's marker and stand in the power of you being you. 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