‘Pose’ star Cecilia Gentili dead at 52: ‘Such a fierce advocate’
“Pose” actress Cecilia Gentili, who was a well-known transgender activist, died on Tuesday, Feb. 6.
She was 52.
Gentili’s death was announced in a statement shared on her Instagram page.
“Our beloved Cecilia Gentili passed away this morning to continue watching over us in spirit,” the statement 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.”
The Post has reached out to reps for Gentili for comment.
Born in Argentina, Gentili first came out in 1984. She was a former sex worker who admitted to living in the US ‘undocumented’ for ten years.
She received asylum in the United States in 2012. Afterward, she was inspired to help others with similar pasts, causing her to fight for the rights of undocumented immigrants, sex workers and the LGBTQIA+ community.
Gentili served as the director of policy at GMHC, the world’s first and leading provider of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and advocacy from 2016 to 2019.
In 2019, she founded Trans Equity Consulting, which “was committed to building the leadership of trans women of color, and to the centering of sex workers, immigrants and incarcerated peoples as experts in creating a more just world.”
She then co-founded Transmissions Fest, the first all-trans music festival in New York City, which was held on June 21, 2022. Proceeds benefitted multiple LGBTQ+ charities.
“We are often included in Pride events, but we’re not centered,” she told Them of the rationale for the event. “And there’s a difference.”
On the critically acclaimed FX series “Pose,” which ran from 2018 to 2021, Gentili played Miss Orlando, a New York City woman who provided discounted plastic surgery.
After news of her death was confirmed on social media, hundreds of fans immediately reacted to the sad news.
“Our community will never be the same without you, Cecilia,” wrote US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “Thank you for giving us so much, relentlessly, every single day. You transformed so many lives and shined a light across Jackson Heights, Corona and beyond.”
Her “Pose” co-star, Tobago trans model Dominique Jackson, posted a tribute on Tuesday, sharing that she was “deeply saddened” by Gentili’s passing.
“I am deeply saddened by your departure dear sister!” she wrote. “Even in death you are force to be reckoned with, your legacy one of movement, love and compassion unapologetic and true. I thank you dearly for ALL the work you have done. You sacrificed you boldly telling your truth and living it and for that you have changed and influenced many lives and the world. I LOVE YOU FOREVER BEAUTIFUL STRONG SISTER! REST WELL!”
Angelica Ross, “Pose” actress and founder and CEO of TransTech Social Enterprises, a firm that helps employ transgender people in the tech industry, also commented on Gentili’s passing saying, “Such a fierce advocate. Rest in Power.”
Drag performer Chiquitita also paid tribute and posted a video of the pair onstage together, writing, “I will honor your name for the rest of my life. Thank you for everything. Thank you for being a mother to me.”
In addition to being an actress and activist, Gentili was an author and she published “Faltas: Letters to Everyone in My Hometown Who Isn’t My Rapist” in 2022.
“I love telling stories,” she told Them in an interview. “I’ve been telling the same stories for 10 fucking years, right? But my stories are always different. Depending on where I am, how I feel, who’s listening, I tell the stories differently. If I feel like people need a little bit of compassion, I can put compassion in my story. If I feel like people need to hear the hard truth, I can be hardcore. With the book, you lose that. There is only one way and it’s on paper. So when I started writing these stories, I hated it.”
“But then it was like, What about if I write a letter? It was Cat [Fitzpatrick, of LittlePuss Press] who taught me that. What if the stories are part of a letter? And it was such a beautiful discovery,” she added. “Because then the story is not about the story. It’s the message you want to translate to that person.”
In 2023, the book won the American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award.
