On Thursday, June 24, GLAAD nominated Jasmine Davis, a Black transgender advocate and community health organizer who has focused on efforts in HIV prevention, health care, and transgender advocacy in her hometown of New Orleans for Good Morning America’s Inspiration List 2021.
Jasmine has worked with various organizations including the Transgender Law Center’s Positively Trans initiative, as well as CrescentCare, a Gilead COMPASS Initiative grantee organization that focuses on offering a broad range of health and wellness services for people in the Greater New Orleans and Southeastern Louisiana area, which focuses on those who are LGBTQ+ as well as “the uninsured and the underinsured, immigrants, and communities of color,” according to their website.
Jasmine’s work has played a vital role in community-driven research and resources, and for LGBTQ acceptance. “I just want everyone to realize that we are all humans in this world and the only way we’re going to get through this is together,” Jasmine said. The Transgender Law Center has cited Davis as a “strong voice of influence” who works across platforms to “educate, empower and bring awareness while promoting positive solutions that contribute to the development of the Transgender and Gender Non Conforming (TGNC) community.”
Last year Davis was among 140 HIV community advocates to receive a Gilead scholarship to attend the 23rd International AIDS Conference – AIDS 2020: Virtual.
In an interview with Gilead Sciences, Davis said the scholarship gave her the opportunity “to learn more and bring more to my community.”
“It allows me to stay abreast of the current events that are going on in the field of HIV and it allows me to contribute to the development of my community.”
Davis has been working in the field of public health for almost 5 years. She was a Prevention Specialist, Counselor, and Outreach Coordinator at Brotherhood Incorporated for two years before joining the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance: Transgender Women (NHBS-Trans) team at CrescentCare as a Research Associate and Prevention Specialist/Counselor.