Toni D. Newman (born December 3, 1962) is an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

author,

sex workers' rights Sex workers' rights encompass a variety of aims being pursued globally by individuals and organizations that specifically involve the human, health, and labor rights of sex workers and their clients. The goals of these movements are diverse, but ...

advocate, Director of The Coalition for Justice and Equality Across Movements at NMAC, and the Former Interim CEO of the Black AIDS Institute and former Interim Executive Director/President for LYRIC in San Francisco. She was the former Executive Director of St. James Infirmary in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. She is the author of ''I Rise-The Transformation of Toni Newman'', a 2011 memoir about her

gender transition Gender transition is the process of changing one's gender presentation or sex characteristics to accord with one's internal sense of gender identity – the idea of what it means to be a man or a woman,Brown, M. L. & Rounsley, C. A. (1996) ''True ...

which was nominated for multiple

Lambda Literary Awards Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...

and became the basis for a short film, ''Heart of a Woman''. Newman was raised in

Jacksonville, North Carolina Jacksonville is a city in Onslow County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 72,723, which makes Jacksonville the 14th-largest city in North Carolina. Jacksonville is the county seat and most populous commun ...

. She graduated from

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the un ...

in 1985. Prior to becoming Executive Director of St. James Infirmary in May 2018, Newman worked as interim director of development and communications for the To Help Everyone Health and Wellness Center in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, as a strategic fundraiser and legislative aide for

Equality California Equality California or EQCA is a non-profit civil rights organization that advocates for the rights of LGBT people in California. It is the largest statewide LGBT organization in the United States and the largest member of the Equality Federation ...

, and as development officer for Maitri Compassionate Care.

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* * 1962 births African-American activists African-American women writers LGBT African Americans LGBT people from the San Francisco Bay Area Living people People from Jacksonville, North Carolina Sex worker activists in the United States Transgender women LGBT people from North Carolina 21st-century American women 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women American transgender writers {{US-writer-stub