Tori Cooper

Director of Community Engagement

Human Rights Campaign

I advocate for everybody. I want everybody to win.

About Tori

I always knew I wasn’t like other little girls or boys.
I really got to start exploring my gender identity and sexuality when I left home for college—I had a group of friends and we would all go out and party together as a community.
When I started taking hormonal therapies, I didn’t feel the need to share that with anyone because it was a very personal journey for me and I didn’t think others would understand.
A few years later, HIV and AIDS started ravaging my community.
I kept going out and living my best life fully expecting to be taken down by HIV or HIV stigma, yet I wasn’t.
In my forties, as a Black trans woman, I felt called to work to fight for my community as a health and equity consultant advocating for trans people, Black people, and people living with HIV.
I currently work as the Human Rights Campaign’s director of community engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative.