Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracee MdDaniel. She and her team shared their story with us below:
Trans Human Rights Advocate and published author, 2021 Atlanta Phoenix Award recipient Tracee McDaniel is motivated by a strong desire to ensure that all Trans and Gender Non-Conforming people also receive equity, justice, civil and human rights protections.
Tracee was born and raised in South Carolina. She credits her strength and determination to her family’s unconditional love and support throughout her life, which also enabled her to have stepped knee-deep into advocacy, by becoming the first Trans person invited just three days before her January Birthday in 2007 to deliver a key-note speech at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration march and rally.
Tracee then marched on to Washington, DC and lobbied the United States Congress also in 2007 to support a fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and increased HIV/AIDS funding.
Her personal motto “Show Up and Participate for Equity” attributed to her becoming the Founder and Executive Director of Juxtaposed Center for Transformation, Incorporated, which is a Human and Civil Rights advocacy and consulting organization, specifically designed to empower the diverse Trans, Gender Non-Conforming and Non-Binary community.
In addition to advocating for basic equitable human liberties and pursuit of happiness that are afforded to others, Juxtaposed Center for Transformation, Incorporated was founded in 2007 by Tracee McDaniel to use as a vehicle for spreading the good news about Trans, Gender Non-Conforming and Non-Binary people. JCT also celebrates resiliency, existing in every country and on every continent since written history began.
Our Mission also includes illuminating our resilience as well as the systemic discrimination, violence and inequities that Trans people face when seeking access to fair housing, gainful employment, quality healthcare, and just being treated with dignity and respect.
Juxtaposed Center is also an anchoring organization for Trans Housing Atlanta Program Inc., which provides supportive and emergency housing resources to those individuals and families that are housing-challenged and marginalized Trans, Gender Non-Conforming, Non-Binary people, whom may just need a hand up during hard times.
Additionally, Tracee has previously served on the Atlanta Police Department’s TLGBQI Advisory Boards and a Working Group on Prostitution after a local security company petitioned the City to ban Trans people from Midtown, specifically Trans women of color, which was ultimately defeated.
In 2013 Tracee published “Transitions-Memoirs of a Transsexual Woman”, which chronicled her in-ordinary life growing up Trans in the South and then eventually in 1990 escaping to Los Angeles, CA to save her life from a domestically violent intimate partner relationship.
“Transitions” also details her evolution working in the corporate world by day and then effortlessly transitioning into her performance artist Alter-Ego Destiny Your Mistress of Illusions, moonlighting by night to make ends meet.
Tracee was in the right place at the right time to have been a featured background singer and also hand-selected by producers to Rehearsal Stand-In for the legendary icon Diana Ross, during her 1996 “I Will Survive” music video shoot.
Tracee was also featured in the VH1 Miniseries “The Jacksons”-An American Dream and “Primary Colors” with John Travolta and Emma Thomas, all before meeting the man of her dreams.
After being retired from the entertainment stage now for well over a decade, in 2014 Tracee advised on curriculum development after becoming a Vetted Trainer under the Obama Administration’s United States Department of Justice CRS Program “Law Enforcement and Transgender Community Training”, which is a life-affirming training that educated Federal Law Enforcement Officers on how to better interact with Trans people, while also treating us with dignity and respect.
Another highlight and milestone for Tracee was on March 31, 2015, she was invited to brief the Obama Administration’s White House Washington’s “Trans Women of Color Women History Month Briefing” on Employment and Economic Equity, and how those inequities affect Trans Women of Color.
In 2016, former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed selected Tracee to become the very first Trans person to be appointed to serve on the Atlanta Citizen Review Board, representing the Office of the Mayor.
Upon receiving such an unprecedented Appointment to also become an appointed City Official, she was also elected to Board Co-Chair leadership on February 10, 2020, then again unanimously elected Board Chairwoman in 2021
Tracee completed her second term final term on February 9, 2022, and sixth year serving on the Atlanta Citizen Review Board.
Guiding her decision making during her time on the ACRB, Tracee also credits her experiences after an eight-week course at Atlanta Police Department’s Citizens Police Academy. and previously facilitating Trans Cultural Competence Training for APD Academy Recruits for providing insightful knowledge and a better understanding of the unique challenges and occasional rewards that are associated with community policing.
On November 18, 2018 Tracee traveled to Vancouver, Canada and delivered her Trans empowerment international keynote address at British Columbia Nonprofit Housing Association’s Housing Central annual conference. “I Am My Sister and Brother’s Keeper”, which is a love letter to her mother that chronicled more intimate insights into Tracee’s life’s journey from childhood up to this point in time.
In addition to other life-affirming acknowledgments for her service to community, on March 10, 2020 Tracee received a RESOLUTION from the Georgia House of Representatives, commending her for receiving the Yellow Rose Nikki T. Randall Servant Leadership Award from Georgia State Representative Park Cannon.
Currently, after retiring in 2018 from organizing Atlanta’s annual Transgender Day of Remembrance Vigils for ten years, Tracee is still a Co-Founder serving on Trans Housing Atlanta Program’s Board of Directors, Emeritus Center for Civil and Human Rights TLGB Programming Board of Directors, and previously served two terms on former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom’s TLGBQI Advisory Council in 2018 -2020.
Conclusively, Tracee makes no apologies for always putting the “T” first. and believes that our visibility saves lives.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Historically speaking and currently, Transphobia, Trans murders, inequity, injustice, systemic discrimination and the Republican Party are obstacles that our community must rise above here in this Twenty First Century.
Personally speaking, though there were many challenges that I’d had to overcome with my mother regarding my gender identity when I was an adolescent into my teens, I really didn’t have any other major issues becoming the person that I was born to be.
Upon moving out on my own, and taking care of myself at eighteen years, I started living full time as the woman that I am in 1986 when I started a summer job in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Though my dress of style was always androgynous, one Friday after work I’d went to the mall to shop for a weekend club outfit in J C Penney’s, instead of going to the men’s department, I’d chosen the women’s department instead and I’ve never shopped in the men’s department ever again.
I’ve always gone home for visits, so when I went back home for my Grandmother’s funeral after my J C Penney experience, I’d decided that I wasn’t going to not wear my female clothes, hair and Fire and Ice red lipstick.
In 1987, I started taking hormone replacement therapy prescribed by a reputable medical doctor at the age if nineteen.
I consider myself fortunate enough to have been blessed with what I call the “Passing Privilege Phenomenon”, which enabled me to walk through life not worried about if I was going to be clocked or experience public ridicule or violence, due being a black Trans woman.
The only real violence that I’d experienced during those developmental years were two occasion when I’ve experienced mental and physical abuse by the hands of intimate partners.
Fortunately, I’d escaped to Los Angeles, California in 1990 to save my life from the last person that threatened my life.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
In addition to being a human and civil right advocate, I a published Author that’s currently working on my first fictitious science fiction Novel about an eighteenth dynasty black Pharaoh and his enslaved Nubian paramour whose a Eunuch, entitled “Nekhbet – The Vulture Goddess Volume One.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I think that it’s very important to be yourself at all times, then everything else will fall into place.
Growing up I didn’t have any mentors or role models to look up to or emulate, none other than, my mother, whom was and still is my North Star, condidante. role model and she-roe.
In my experience as an adult doing advocacy work, I didn’t go out seeking a mentor, however, divine order made it possible for me to have met fellow community activist Betty Couvertier, whom showed me the in’s and out’s regarding activism.
I’m appreciative for Betty’s mentorship.
“Always remember, human rights are trans rights, trans rights are human rights, and our visibility saves lives, so show up and participate for equity, honey.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thejct.org/
- Instagram: tracee_mcdaniel4life
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tracee.mcdaniel
- Twitter: @TraceeMcD
Image Credits
Images Courtesy of Tracee McDaniel Archives
