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Cecilia Chung

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cecilia Chung
At Trans March San Francisco, June 2017
Born1965 (age 58–59)
British Hong Kong
Known forCivil rights leader and activist for LGBT rights, HIV/AIDS awareness, health advocacy and social justice

Cecilia Chung (Chinese: 鍾紹琪) is a civil rights leader and activist for LGBT rights, HIV/AIDS awareness, health advocacy, and social justice. She is a trans woman, and her life story was one of four main storylines in the 2017 ABC miniseries When We Rise about LGBT rights in the 1970s and 1980s.

Early life

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Cecilia was born in Hong Kong in 1965 and later immigrated to Los Angeles with her family in 1984.[1] A year later, she moved to San Francisco to attend City College of San Francisco before transferring to Golden Gate University in 1987 with a degree in international management. Afterwards, she spent a few years working as a court interpreter for Santa Clara County[2][3] and a sales trainer at a financial company.[3]

Activism

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Cecilia has spent much of her adult life advocating for health-related issues affecting the LGBT community, including working as an HIV test counselor at UCSF AIDS Health Project, HIV Program Coordinator at API American Health Forum, and deputy director at the Transgender Law Center.[1] Additionally, Cecilia is the first transgender woman and first Asian to be elected to lead the board of directors of the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Celebration and the first transgender woman and the first person living openly with HIV to chair the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.[4]

Cecilia founded San Francisco Transgender Advocacy and Mentorship (SF TEAM) to provide events for the transgender community through the San Francisco LGBT Community Center. She is also one of the founders of the annual Trans March.[1]

In 2013, Cecilia was appointed to the Health Commission by Mayor Edward Lee. She made headlines for making San Francisco the first city in the United States to pay for gender reassignment surgery for uninsured transgender patients. Through her appointment, she was also able to train San Francisco Department of Public Health staff members about transgender issues in programming called "Transgender 101".[2]

The same year, Cecilia was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, where she served two full terms and resigned from the council before the inauguration of President Donald Trump.[5]

For the 2014 AIDS Conference, Cecilia published an article titled "HIV: a call for solidarity with the transgender community," in which she shared a personal encounter with police abuse and emphasized the importance of inclusivity and unity within the trans women community.[6]

Cecilia is the Director of Evaluation and Strategic Initiatives at the Transgender Law Center, and the former chair of the US PL HIV Caucus.[7]

Personal life

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In 1992, Cecilia decided to transition. She became estranged from her family due to their lack of understanding about her being transgender. She also had to resign from her sales trainer job to facilitate the process. She relied on her court interpreter job as her sole source of income, but her employment contract was soon terminated after a judge noticed her physical changes due to transition.[3] She eventually ended up living on the streets and had to resort to sex work for livelihood, which subjected her to sexual and physical violence.[3] She also turned to drugs for self-medication.[3] In the same year, she was diagnosed as HIV positive.[3]

In 1995, almost 3 years after becoming homeless, Cecilia was stabbed during a sexual assault attempt and taken to the emergency room.[3][8] Her mother, who was the emergency contact, came to the hospital for a visit and the two reconciled.[3] Since then, Cecilia completed her gender reassignment surgery in Bangkok in 1998.[2]

Honors and awards

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Chung receiving a certificate of honor from San Francisco supervisor Ahsha Safaí, November 2019
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Chung with actresses Ivory Aquino and Emily Skeggs at Trans March San Francisco, June 2017

Ivory Aquino plays Cecilia in the miniseries about LGBT rights called When We Rise.[13]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Cecilia Chung, Chair of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission". Trans March. Archived from the original on April 4, 2015. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d Knight, Heather (January 12, 2013). "Cecilia Chung, transgender health advocate". SFGate.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Ford, Olivia (May 16, 2013). "This Positive Life: Cecilia Chung on Violence, Gender, Prisons, Family and Healing". The Body. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  4. ^ "Advisory Board: Cecilia Chung". Center of Excellence for Transgender Health, University of California, San Francisco. Archived from the original on September 7, 2015. Retrieved August 8, 2015.
  5. ^ "About Cecilia Chung". Cecilia Chung. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  6. ^ Cecilia Chung. (2014). HIV: a call for solidarity with the transgender community. OpenDemocracy (London).
  7. ^ Gordon, Noël (March 10, 2014). "Meet Cecilia Chung & JoAnne Keatley: Two Trailblazers in the Fight against HIV/AIDS". Human Rights Campaign. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  8. ^ a b c d e Pham, Xoai (May 7, 2020). "Honor Trans Elders: Cecilia Chung Is the Mother We All Wanted". Autostraddle. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
  9. ^ "Cecilia Chung". Berkeley Law. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
  10. ^ "Cecilia Chung joins the Transgender Law Center team as a Senior Strategist". Transgender Law Center. 18 January 2013. Archived from the original on 2015-06-18. Retrieved 2015-08-08.
  11. ^ "SF supervisors honor transgender leaders". Bay Area Reporter. November 20, 2019. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  12. ^ "Awards: NAAAP100, Inspire, Pride | National Association of Asian American Professionals". www.naaap.org. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
  13. ^ Goldberg, Leslie (April 26, 2016). "ABC's Gay Rights Mini Enlists Michael K. Williams, Sets All-Star Guest Cast". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
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