[3] Cecilia has spent much of her adult life advocating for health-related issues affecting the LGBT community, including working as an HIV test counselor at UCSF AIDS Health Project, HIV Program Coordinator at API American Health Forum, and deputy director at the Transgender Law Center.

She made headlines for making San Francisco the first city in the United States to pay for gender reassignment surgery for uninsured transgender patients.

[6] Cecilia is the Director of Evaluation and Strategic Initiatives at the Transgender Law Center, and the former chair of the US PL HIV Caucus.

She relied on her court interpreter job as her sole source of income, but her employment contract was soon terminated after a judge noticed her physical changes due to transition.

[3] She eventually ended up living on the streets and had to resort to sex work for livelihood, which subjected her to sexual and physical violence.