These two Black transgender women are ‘shining beacons’ leading Chicago through anti-trans backlash

As political forces, including the country’s president, take aim at transgender Americans, two Black trans leaders in Chicago say they are not only resisting — they are building.

Commissioner Precious Brady-Davis, who made history in 2024 as the first Black openly transgender woman elected to public office in Cook County, and Channyn Lynne Parker, CEO of Brave Space Alliance, are confronting a national moment marked by cruelty, disinformation, and legislative assault. In candid interviews, both described their work not as survival but as leadership, grounded in service, community, and defiance of erasure.

“I feel that Republicans, the President of the United States, were elected on the backs of $250 million worth of lies,” Brady-Davis said, referring to the documented ad spending by Trump-aligned campaigns that saturated network television with anti-trans content in 2024. “That ad campaign wasn’t just about winning votes — it was about trying to erase us.”

MWRD Commissioner Precious Brady-Davis

Brady-Davis was first appointed to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago in 2023 by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and then elected the following year with more than 1.28 million votes, or 69.3 percent of the total. Her office serves over 5 million residents and manages the infrastructure that protects Chicago’s water supply.

“I was elected by a million people,” she said. “I’m a wife. I’m a mother. I serve openly and with purpose.”

She added, “I feel like in this moment that I am a shining beacon, that you can’t keep a good trans girl down, and that there are qualified trans people who deserve to serve in public office and should.”

While Brady-Davis operates in government, Parker leads one of the most visible community-based organizations in the Midwest. Brave Space Alliance, which Parker has led since 2022, is the first Black- and trans-led LGBTQ+ center on Chicago’s South Side.

“I think the main thing that has changed is that folks are now emboldened to dehumanize trans folks,” Parker said. “This administration has given bigoted people a cathartic release to say, ‘Finally, I can say and do all the things I’ve wanted to do to you all for the longest.’”

Channyn Parker

Parker said she has not personally encountered such hostility, but she sees it in her work every day. “I have layers of protection that the average trans person does not,” she said. “Where I do see it show up in real-time is with my participants.”

That includes trans people being denied affirming health insurance, detained at the border over gender marker discrepancies, or grappling with mental health crises driven by fear and instability. “Some are all but having mental and emotional collapses based off of the complete uncertainty of what the next months, let alone the next years, bring,” she said.

Brave Space Alliance has not relied on federal funding — by design. “Early on in my being the CEO, I had this gut feeling not to accept federal money because I just wasn’t sure how this election was going to turn out,” Parker said. “I figured if it went the way that it did, the federal government would not be friendly towards organizations like Brave Space.” Under the second administration of President Donald Trump, grants for initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (particularly those focused on gender identity) have been halted.

Still, some funding loss has come indirectly. “We did, however, lose some of our HIV funding because, though it is city funding, it comes from the CDC, which is federal,” she said.

Both women reject the idea that transgender people are liabilities to the political coalition that once claimed to defend them. Brady-Davis, while praising Pritzker’s support, said the national Democratic response to the anti-trans attacks was inadequate.

“We let $250 million of anti-trans ads blanket the airwaves. Not a word said back,” she said. “The advisors were wrong. Frankly, they were wrong.”

She also emphasized that being trans is just one part of who she is — and that she leads with a broader vision of service. “It has not just been the LGBTQcommunity,” she said. “It has been service to the environment, it has been clean water for all, it has been advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion for all kinds of people.”

Parker, too, is focused on connecting those dots — showing how anti-trans policies are part of a broader effort to erode rights and protections for everyone. “My gender-affirming care is linked to your bodily autonomy,” she said. “Birth control. Reproductive rights. So on and so forth.”

She said the most potent tool remains reminding people they are not alone and not the problem. “This administration continues to try to gaslight people into believing, if you were not this way, this wouldn’t be happening to you,” Parker said. “But you’re not the problem.”

Looking ahead, both leaders are focused on building not just visibility but capacity.

Commissioner Precious Brady-Davis, Channyn Parker

Brady-Davis said her victory proved that people across ideological lines can recognize character. “There are people who’ve known me since I was a teenager and vote Republican but love me dearly,” she said. “They listen to my experience. I listen to their concerns. And I think you change hearts and minds by tapping into people’s humanity.”

For Parker, the goal is to deepen Brave Space Alliance’s roots — not just expand it. “My hope in the coming years is that we’re not just responding to crisis, but we continue to build capacity,” she said. “I want Dignity to be the baseline and not the exception.”

In this moment of national retreat, both women remain steadfast. “This is my life’s work,” Brady-Davis said. “And I will continue to advocate for the rights of all people, even those who try to take my humanity from me.”