Show Your Pride! Get Vaccinated.

Good afternoon! My name is Miss Billy Cooper.

I'm a 62 year-old African-American  transgender woman.

I have lived in San Francisco's Tenderloin  District 6 area for over three decades.

And I am a community activist  and community advocate.

And I am a person who has been  clean and sober for over 20 years.

We are celebrating Transgender Day of Visibility

to help us stay visible in  San Francisco and beyond.

I encourage everyone to think  about taking the vaccine.

I, myself, am a United States veteran.

And I have taken my first shot  two weeks ago, no side effects,

and I'm waiting to take my  second shot on April the 8th.

I am a person living with HIV.  I am a long-term survivor.

I was diagnosed May the15th, 1985.

I am the first Black, transgender  woman to have been given the honor

of starting a group six years ago at the

San Francisco AIDS Foundation called TransLife.

We are a community group for trans  men and women, gender non-conforming,

gender non-binary and gender fluid people.

And I'm so happy that the San  Francisco AIDS Foundation has

given me the platform to be  a leader in my community.

I feel it's very important for each and  every person to take a vaccine to help

transgender people feel more  secure in and around other people.

Because they talk about herd immunity,  so trans people should also feel

as though we have herd immunity  when it comes to taking the vaccine.

So I implore each and every  transgender, gender non-conforming,

gender non-binary person to take the vaccine.