What a privilege to photograph the funeral of the giant, the icon, the revolutionary; Cecilia Gentili for TIME Magazine. And what a beautiful joy to be surrounded by so many stunning, queer, brilliant humans, who care for their community(s) and work to make the world a better place. What a way to honor Cecilia.

I didn’t know Cecilia well - we met many years ago and I would run into her here and there and every time, without fail, she greeted me as if we were old friends. That was the magic of Cecilia. She made everyone feel as if they belonged, like they were welcome anywhere. She was honored by hundreds of people at St. Patrick’s Cathedral with shouts of “Santa Cecilia! Madre de todas las p*tas!” and is believed to be the first trans woman to have a funeral at that church. What a way to send her off, “to give her her ‘sainthood.”