Willy wins the Lammy for Born on the Edge of Race and Gender at the Lambda Literary Awards in New York City
About
Willy Wilkinson, MPH is an award-winning author, speaker, public health consultant, and cultural competency trainer who has been advocating for marginalized populations since the early days of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. He is the author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning book Born on the Edge of Race and Gender: A Voice for Cultural Competency, which illuminates trans experience from a Chinese American and mixed heritage perspective, and transforms the memoir genre into a cultural competency tool. Willy is the recipient of an Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists Excellence in Journalism Award, and the Transgender Law Center Vanguard Award.
A trans elder who changed his name to Willy at age nine in the early 70’s, Willy penned Gender Splendor: 50 Creative Sparks to Celebrate Yourself at All Ages and Stages to support community well-being. Since 1989, Willy has provided LGBTQ and trans-specific cultural competency training and consultation services for hundreds of community health organizations, healthcare institutions, educational institutions, businesses, governmental agencies, criminal justice institutions, domestic violence organizations, arts organizations, media outlets, and other entities. His work as a trainer is well received for its intersectional curriculum content, his accessible training style, and the practical applications of the knowledge and skills acquired.
Willy has presented keynote speeches, cultural competency trainings, and spoken word performances at campuses such as Stanford, Princeton University, Vassar College, Pomona College, Penn State, UC Berkeley, University of San Francisco, UMASS Amherst, Roger Williams University, Elon University, and University of Illinois at Chicago. He has been a frequent presenter at various conferences, including Creating Change, National Trans Health Summit, Philly Trans Health, California Teachers Association, Substance Use Disorders Statewide Conference, American Psychiatric Association, Gender Odyssey, Gender Spectrum, FORGE Forward, and TRANSforming Gender.
Willy has written for a number of periodicals, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Advocate, the Huffington Post, Asian Week and Out. His work has appeared in journals such as Transgender Studies Quarterly, and anthologies such as Lammy Finalists Transgender Rights and Trans Bodies, Trans Selves. The Lambda Literary Review described his work in Manning Up: Transsexual Men on Finding Brotherhood, Family, and Themselves as “highly evocative.”
Willy has worked extensively with communities of color, LGBTQ people, sex workers, substance users, youth, families, and people with disabilities. As the first Asian and first transgender community health outreach worker providing street-based HIV education and crisis intervention for sex workers and drug users in San Francisco, Willy pioneered an outreach model that addressed the unique needs of Asians and Pacific Islanders (APIs). He worked on the first large-scale research project on the transgender community in the world, and developed the first HIV prevention program for trans men who have sex with other men. Willy launched the Health Care Access Project at Transgender Law Center, the first program to address trans health disparities through provider training, “know your rights” workshops for community members, and advocacy for trans-competent care. He was a key organizer of the API lesbian movement of the ‘80s, and organized the first peer support programs for API transmasculine people and transmasculine people of color. Willy founded API TransFusion, the first API transmasculine retreat.
Willy served as a founding board member for both Transgender Law Center and Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center (now San Francisco Community Health Center), and on numerous advisory boards and committees, such as the Kaiser Transgender Member Advisory Council. He earned a Masters in Public Health in Community Health Education from UC Berkeley, and a BA in Women’s Studies from UC Santa Cruz. He coordinated care for his elderly parents for many years. He is the father of three amazing teenagers. He lives on Ohlone land in Oakland, California.