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Cecilia Gentili at New York City's Pride Rally in 2023
Michael Kuilan received a 19-year prison sentence for supplying the drugs that killed her.
Michael Kuilan, one of two men who pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the death of transgender activist and actress Cecilia Gentili, was sentenced Tuesday to 19 years in prison.
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Gentili was found dead February 6, 2024, in her New York City home after overdosing on fentanyl-laced heroin. She was 52. Kuilan and Antonio Venti were charged April 1, 2024, with supplying the drugs that killed her.
Kuilan pleaded guilty September 23 to a charge that he distributed heroin and fentanyl and possessed the drugs with intent to distribute. He has three prior state-level felony convictions for drug offenses relating to the sale of heroin, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan, who handed down the sentence, also ordered Kuilan to pay $24,482 in restitution and forfeit $30,000 and a seized firearm. Cogan further sentenced Kuilan to serve 15 years concurrently for unlawfully possessing a firearm as a felon.
“Cecilia Gentili was tragically poisoned from fentanyl-laced heroin,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said in the release. “Today, the perpetrators who sold the deadly drugs to Gentili are being held accountable. This office will be relentless in prosecuting fentanyl dealers.”
Venti pleaded guilty July 30 to the same drug charge. In February, Cogan sentenced him to five years in prison. Prosecutors had asked for a lighter sentence for Venti, as he had expressed remorse over the death of Gentili, whom he considered a close friend, Courthouse News Service reported at the time of sentencing. Cogan additionally ordered Venti to pay $24,432 in restitution.
Gentili was an advocate for the rights of trans people, immigrants, and sex workers. Born in Argentina, she came to the U.S. to live a safer life as a trans woman, according to her biography on the website for Transgender Equity Consulting, which she founded in 2019. The firm provides diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting.
In her first 10 years in the U.S., she was undocumented and engaged in sex work. She also was involved in substance abuse during that time. After winning asylum and going through treatment, she began a career in social services and public policy work, first as an intern at New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center.
She worked for Apicha Community Health Center from 2012 to 2016, developing trans health services. From 2016 to 2019, she was on staff at GMHC, becoming managing director of policy. Her work there included advocating for New York State’s Gender Non-Discrimination Act, which became law in 2019.
Gentili also founded Decrim NY, which works toward the decriminalization, decarceration, and destigmatization of people in the sex trade. She helped develop state legislation to provide relief for survivors of trafficking and to repeal a “loitering” law under which trans people were harassed on suspicion of being sex workers.
She was a cofounder of COIN, which stands for “Cecilia’s Occupational Inclusion Network,” a collaboration with Callen-Lorde Community Health Center to provide free health care to sex workers. She received a Community Health Award from Callen-Lorde in 2019.
Gentili appeared as an actress on Pose,portraying Miss Orlando, and in a solo stage show based on her early life, Red Ink, which was due to be revived in April 2024. She was author of the memoir Faltas: Letters to Everyone in My Hometown Who Isn’t My Rapist; it was published in 2022 and won the Stonewall Book Award from the American Library Association in 2023.
