Tori Cooper

TORI COOPER

Director of Community Engagement, Transgender Justice Initiative, Human Rights Campaign

A health and equity consultant, community organizer, educator, published author, and leader in the transgender and HIV communities, Tori Cooper has more than 30 years of experience at all levels of HIV service, from volunteer roles to her service as executive director and founder of Advocates for Better Care Atlanta, LLC.

“The main priority in my work is the liberation of my people, and, although that sounds like an incredibly overarching theme, it’s true. Liberation means that trans and gender expansive people have access to everything we need to live happily and healthily.

Our trans community has as much diversity in presentation, ideology, and experiences as any other group of people.

The biggest challenge today is misinformation and disinformation, as they go hand in hand. An example is that all trans people are straight. That’s not true because our trans community has as much diversity in presentation, ideology, and experiences as any other group of people.

Disinformation, I define as a lie with willful intent. For instance, bathroom bills are created willfully using discriminatory and inflammatory rhetoric about trans and gender expansive people with the intent to create division, fear, and discriminatory policies. We are not instigating violence in bathrooms, yet the opposition uses these fake narratives to promote fear and discrimination. The truth is, if you know what the genitals look like of the person in the stall next to you then you should be arrested and not them.”