Alexis Arquette (Birth name: Robert Arquette)
Arquette was born in Los Angeles, the fourth of five children of Lewis Arquette, an actor and director, and Brenda Olivia, a Jewish actress, poet, theater operator, activist, acting teacher, and therapist. Actors Rosanna, Richmond, Patricia, and David Arquette were his siblings.
In 2004, Arquette expressed an interest in undergoing gender-transitioning medical treatment. He decided against undergoing hormone therapy and kept his choice of whether he underwent gender-affirming surgery private from the media by the time he completed his transition in 2006. His experience was documented in the film Alexis Arquette: She's My Brother, which debuted at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. Arquette was a vocal supporter of other transgender people, including Chaz Bono, who transitioned shortly after Arquette.
Arquette contracted HIV in 1987. In later life, he suffered from ill health as a result of being HIV-positive. Amid these increasing complications, Alexis began presenting again as a man in 2013. Brother David Arquette said that Alexis was "gender suspicious" and alternately felt like a man or a woman at different times. Arquette was placed in a medically induced coma and died on September 11, 2016, surrounded by close family, at the age of 47.
The official cause of death was cardiac arrest caused by myocarditis stemming from HIV - And what is HIV? - Be sure to watch for future parallels with COVID injection victims.
