Tori Cooper Oral History

OUTWORDS interview with Tori Cooper conducted by Andrea Pino-Silva on February 26, 2021 in College Park, GA. Tori Cooper is a health and equity advocate, community organizer, author, and leading figure in the transgender and HIV communities. Tori’s life has been repeatedly devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. When Tori was in middle school, her mother’s cousin died of AIDS complications on the same day her maternal grandfather died of cancer, which gutted her family. One of her childhood friends, Aubrey, died of complications from AIDS when Tori was 23. Aubrey was the first person to see that Tori was going to “make a beautiful woman one day,” before even Tori herself. In 2015, she founded and self-financed Advocates for Better Care Atlanta, LLC, a consulting firm created to educate and empower marginalized people, particularly prioritizing the needs of transgender people and those living with HIV. In 2021, Tori was appointed to President Joe Biden’s Advisory Council on HIV & AIDS, which is the first time that an out Black transgender person has served on the council. Tori has also been featured in the documentary Silent Epidemic, talking about the approach to trans issues and HIV in the South. She says it “took 20 years to become an overnight success.” Currently, she serves as the Director of Community Engagement for the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Transgender Justice Initiative, which is the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the U.S.

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Item Information:

Identifier: 8623hz04s
Collection: Oral Histories with People of Color
Institution: OUTWORDS
Creator(s): Cooper, Tori
Contributor(s): Pino-Silva, Andrea
Publisher: OUTWORDS
Date Created: Feb. 26, 2021
Dates Covered: May 21, 1970 to Feb. 26, 2021
Genre: Oral Histories
Transcriptions
Subject(s): Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
Presidential Advisory Council on HIV & AIDS
Tori Cooper
Places: New York
Virginia
Georgia > Fulton County > Atlanta
Georgia > Fulton > College Park
Topic(s): AIDS activists
AIDS education
Black LGBTQ+ people
Black transgender people
Public health advisory groups
QTPOC
Trans women
Resource Type: Moving image
Language: English
Rights: Copyright undetermined
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