San Francisco transgender activist
Jazzie Collins died Thursday. She was 54.
According to the San
Francisco Chronicle, Collins, a respected community
organizer, died at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in San Francisco. A
cause of death was not immediately available but friends said that
Collins suffered from deteriorating health over the past few weeks.
She was openly HIV-positive.
Collins' work as an activist was
honored last month at the Capitol in Sacramento by the California
Legislative Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus.
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, an openly gay Democrat from San Francisco,
had nominated Collins for the award.
“One thing that she always had that
was very appealing was dignity,” Ammiano said. “I think she
understood the dynamics of the challenges she faced personally and
how they connected to the causes she was in personally.”
Collins, who was born in Memphis and
moved to San Francisco in 1988, “was definitely a San Franciscan,
in every sense of the word,” Ammiano added.
Collins is survived by her mother, four
sisters and four brothers.