Caprice Carthans, a trans woman of color and resident of Marquette Park (Chicago), was a co-chair of the Intergraded Community Advisory Board (CAB) at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) [1] and is an inductee of the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 2020. [2] [3]
Carthans, as of August 2022, is a member of the AFC Board of Directors and CAB. [4]
When she was eleven, Carthans came out as trans to her mother, whom she found very supportive. [2]
She grew restless while studying at Chicago State University so sje moved to New York City where she lived for about thirty years. It was there, in 1999, that sje was diagnosed with HIV. When she was unable to afford living in NYC any longer, she returned to the place she considered home which is Chicago and got case management services from Christian Community Health Center (CCHC). [1]
Her time at CCHC inspired her to give back and at Heartland Alliance, she worked as an Affordable Care Act healthcare navigator helping trans women and sex workers sign up for health care. [1]
Her awards include the 2017 National Transgender Testing Day Advocate and was the Chicago Department of Public Health HIV Trailblazer. She was featured in the 2018 book by Kehrer Verlag called To Survive on this Shore. [2]
In 2019, she was one of two honored on the Transgender Day of Remembrance. [5]
Violence against transgender people includes emotional, physical, sexual, or verbal violence targeted towards transgender people. The term has also been applied to hate speech directed at transgender people and at depictions of transgender people in the media that reinforce negative stereotypes about them. Trans and non-binary gender adolescents can experience bashing in the form of bullying and harassment. When compared to their cisgender peers, trans and non-binary gender youth are at increased risk for victimisation and substance abuse.
The Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR), also known as the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, has been observed annually from its inception on November 20 to memorialize those who have been murdered as a result of transphobia. The day was founded to draw attention to the continued violence directed toward transgender people.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is a Los Angeles-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and advocacy services. As of 2024, AHF operates about 400 clinics, 69 outpatient healthcare centers, 62 pharmacies, and 22 Out of the Closet thrift stores across 15 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and 46 countries, with over 5,000 employees, and provides care to more than two million patients. The organization's aim is to end the AIDS epidemic by ensuring access to quality healthcare, including HIV and STD testing, prescription of medications like Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), and referrals to specialty pharmacies. AHF is the largest provider of PrEP in the United States, though its founder Michael Weinstein has received criticism for his past opposition to the drug.
Alexandra Scott Billings is an American actress, singer, and teacher. Billings, a trans woman, played one of TV's first openly transgender characters in 2005 made-for-TV movie Romy and Michele: In the Beginning. She is also known for portraying the recurring character Davina in the Amazon series Transparent and has played transgender characters in ER, Eli Stone, How to Get Away with Murder, Grey's Anatomy and The Conners.
Lorrainne Sade Baskerville is an American social worker, activist, and trans woman best known for founding transgender advocacy group transGENESIS.
AIDS Foundation of Chicago is a locally based, non-profit organization that advocates for HIV/AIDS prevention as well as serves as a general resource for the HIV/AIDS community. Founded in 1985, some of their better-known accomplishments include hosting fundraisers to support the distribution of HIV/AIDS related medications in the city, funding the Open Door Health Center, and launching their “Getting to Zero” plan. Their cause seeks to increase the amount of resources available to the HIV/AIDS community as resources are too few and far between. Similar to other city organizations focused on sexual health such as Howard Brown Health, AFC makes getting access to treatment easier for all patients, decreases the stigma around treatment, and promotes the awareness and acceptance of those who live with HIV and/or AIDS.
Theresa J. Kaijage is a social worker who advocates for those infected with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania. Kaijage works to raise awareness about the disease and tries to assuage the negative social implications that accompany the diagnosis of HIV/AIDS in Africa.Theresia Kaijage is also the founder and director of the Tanzanian non-governmental organization, WAMATA, which educates and provides counseling services to those with HIV/AIDS.
Nikki Calma, better known as Tita Aida, is a social activist from San Francisco, California. She is a long-time advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness, particularly among Asian American communities, and for transgender people.
Cecilia Chung 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.
Alexis Marie Rivera was a transgender advocate and the first Case Manager and first Program Director for the Children's Hospital's transgender youth services program in Los Angeles. Rivera helped develop social services for the transgender community in Los Angeles in the 1990s and early 2000s, and later statewide programs in the late 2000s.
Ayanda Denge was a South African trans woman and sex trafficking survivor. She was an advocate for transgender people, sex trafficking survivors, and for the abolition of prostitution. She was the chairperson of the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT). Denge has said that, "being transgender is ... a triple dose of stigmatisation and discrimination".
Deon Haywood is an American human rights defender, activist, educator, and director noted for her work combating discrimination against Black women, the criminalization of sex workers, adverse living conditions against the working poor, and limited access to HIV healthcare for residents of the American South. She is the executive director of the social justice non-profit, Women With A Vision.
The TransLatina Coalition, stylized as the TransLatin@ Coalition, is a national, Los Angeles–based 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity advocacy group that works on behalf of transgender Latina women who are immigrants to the United States. It established and runs the Center for Violence Prevention and Transgender Wellness and works with policymakers and organizations to advance advocacy and resource support for transgender Latinas. Its staff consists of leaders from across the United States who have specific experience in meeting the needs of transgender Latinas intersecting with public health, education, and social justice, with representation in over 11 U.S. states, Washington D.C., and Mexico City, with over seven organized chapters.
Discrimination against transgender men and transmasculine individuals is sometimes referred to as transandrophobia, anti-transmasculinity, or transmisandry.
Liesl Theron is a South African trans activist and the co-founder of Gender DynamiX organisation.
Bryn Kelly (1980–2016) was an American writer, artist, performer, and community organizer. Kelly has shown work at New Museum and performed in conjunction with Visual AIDS and in Art in the Age of Aquarius at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She was a member of the Femme Collective, participated in Baltimore's 2012 Femme Conference, and was a cofounder of Theater Transgression, a transgender multimedia performance collective. Her writing and writing performances have appeared in Original Plumbing, Manic D Press, the National Queer Arts Festival, PrettyQueer.com, and EOAGH, A Journal of the Arts, amongst others.
Chandi Moore is an American health education specialist, transgender rights activist, HIV/AIDS activist, and reality television personality. Moore was a former cast member of the documentary series I Am Cait and works as the Health Education Associate at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
Zahara Monique Bassett is the founder and CEO of Life Is Work. Life is Work is a social service agency on the West Side of Chicago. She is also “a nationally recognized visionary activist and long-time advocate for trans human rights, social justice, health equity, and LGBT equality.”
Lois L. Bates (1970-2011) was an activist in Chicago's transgender community. She was known specifically for her HIV prevention work and her advocacy for trans youth. She was also involved with the Chicago Area Ryan White Services Planning Council, Chicago Windy City Black Pride, the Chicago Transgender Coalition, Lakeview Action, the Minority Outreach Intervention Project. Bates worked for the Howard Brown Health Center. She died at the age of 41.
Cecilia Gentili was an Argentinian-American advocate for the rights of transgender people and sex workers.