Cecilia Chung was born on July 28, 1965 in Hong Kong to her Catholic mother, Dawning, and her father, William. Cecilia often found herself challenging the academic and behavioral expectations placed upon her by her parents, describing her childhood self as a “problem child.” Despite not having the words for her feelings, Cecilia found ways to embody her trans identity, such as the time she eagerly played the role of a belly dancer for a Christmas play; her mom helped her put on make-up to make her the “prettiest.”

Cecilia then immigrated to Australia at 15, the first place where she experienced being a minority student in a primarily white environment. She described this experience as a time of transformation, going from being misbehaved to academically oriented as a survival tactic to fit in and thrive among people who were different from her. She then immigrated with her parents to the United States in 1984, and eventually convinced her parents to let her move to San Francisco in 1985. There, Cecilia began to dress more androgynously, looking to celebrities like Boy George for inspiration.

After graduating from Golden Gate University in 1987 with an International Management degree, Cecilia held a job as a court interpreter for the Santa Clara County court system while also working for a financial company, and had relative financial stability. At the same time, she was struggling with her identity, and her parents’ homophobia and transphobia completely drove them apart. Shortly after coming out as a transgender woman, Cecilia lost her two jobs. Struggling with addiction and unable to hold regular jobs anymore, she began doing sex work in the Tenderloin district to sustain herself.

After being diagnosed with HIV in 1993 and suffering a violent, deadly assault in 1995, Cecilia landed at the hospital, where she was soon visited by her estranged mother, Dawning. When Cecilia entered a rehabilitation program, the two gradually began to reconcile as Dawning realized that Cecilia was risking her life to be her truest self. Three years later, her mother decided to pay for Cecilia’s gender affirming surgery in Hong Kong, a moment that Cecilia calls the “pinnacle” of both their relationship and her own transformation.

In 1994, Cecilia began a long career of activism for transgender rights when she joined the San Francisco’s Transgender Discrimination Task Force. She was involved in the 2004 demonstrations held against the mistrials for the murder of Gwen Aruajo, a young transgender woman who was killed by four men, and co-founded the Trans March that same year. She was appointed to the San Francisco Health Commission in 2013, subsequently becoming the first transgender woman and first person living openly with HIV to Chair the Commission. There, she contributed to the passing of resolutions to support gender-affirming healthcare for transgender individuals, including the uninsured. Also in 2013, Barack Obama appointed her to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. She is the founder of San Francisco Transgender Advocacy and Mentorship (SF TEAM); the first Asian and first transgender woman to be SF Pride Board President; launcher of Transgender Law Center’s “Positively Trans” initiative; and the inspiration for a main storyline in the 2017 ABC miniseries When We Rise, where she was played by Ivory Aquino.

Cecilia currently works as Senior Advisor for the Transgender Law Center. Her devotion to advocacy triumphs over any material rewards from jobs she could acquire with her business degree, stating that “the rewards of seeing the transformation is more meaningful than any money can buy.”