Cecilia Gentili Dies: ‘Pose’ Star & LGBTQ+ Advocate Was 52

Cecilia Gentili, an actress from Pose and an LGBTQ+ advocate, has died. She was 52.

A post on Gentili’s Instagram Stories confirmed news of her death, with many of her friends sharing tributes to the late actress coming soon after.

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Pose co-star Dominique Jackson paid tribute to Gentili on Instagram saying she was “deeply saddened” by her departure.

“Even in death you are force to be reckoned with, your legacy one of movement, love and compassion unapologetic and true,” Jackson wrote. “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!”

Jackson later shared a clip from the FX series they both starred in adding, “AN ACTIVIST, AN ICON, A TRAILBLAZER, A MOTHER, A WIFE, AN ACTRESS AND COMEDIAN, AN AMAZING SISTER AND A PHENOMENAL HUMAN BEING!”

The GLAAD organization also paid homage to Gentili, calling her “a pillar in the trans community, a dedicated advocate, a striking actress on the hit TV program Pose, an incredible journalist, and a sex worker.”

GLAAD also shared a quote from Gentili taken from the anthology Surviving Transphobia where she wrote, “I say this to trans people, trans women of color, and to trans women of color who are undocumented or sex workers or both, people like me: Do what you can to achieve whatever level of empowerment you can get, but also be safe… I’ll probably never call myself radical, especially in two countries with such high rates of trans femicide and histories of coups. I’m okay with it. I never want to judge my work by how ‘radical’ I am. But I do judge it on what I’m doing for my people and for myself.”

Gentili was set to appear in a one-woman show in New York this April. The show, titled Red Ink, would follow her early life growing up in Argentina and share “stories about searching for faith while trans.”

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