tracee mcdaniel

This show is a special one because this show marks the beginning of a new flavor of The Strong Stance: Storytelling. These particular episodes will feature all types of stories from all types of trans and gender non-conforming people. The aim is to showcase our community’s voices and lived experiences and to provide an outlet for art and expression. We are continually looking for stories and at the end of the show, I’ll give you more information about how to submit those stories. As a fan of storytelling and storytelling podcasts, this is something I have wanted to do for quite a while now, so I have high hopes for where this stream of The Strong Stance can go.

But let’s talk about today’s episode. I’m calling today’s show ‘About Face’. These stories showcase a few of the ways in which we present ourselves to the world around us and how those performances and presentations affect our lives moving forward. Is the face that we show to the world the same one we see in the mirror? How do we view society and how are we viewed in it? And will these experiences change the trajectory of our future and how we move through our daily lives? Welcome...to The Strong Stance Stories.

Episode 1 Story Tellers
Tracee McDaniel is a transgender advocate, author and the Founder and CEO of the Juxtaposed Center for Transformation in Atlanta. You can find Tracee on the web at www.thejct.org.
Melvin Whitehead engages with his community through leading a local support group for transgender and gender non-conforming people, serving as a core member of the Trans Oral History Project, and working to make his church an affirming place for LGBTQ people. He can be reached at whitehead.melvin@gmail.com

For all the advancements that the transgender community has seen over the last couple years, there are still staggering statistics of discrimination and oppression that our community faces on a daily basis. We face employment and housing discrimination, the outright denial of adequate healthcare or the coverage thereof, bullying, suicide and murder at alarming rates.
At the time of this taping, there have been 20 identified trans women and gender non-conforming people murdered in the US in 2015.*** All but a few of whom were trans women of color. Here is the list of those individuals:

1. Papi Edwards, 20 years old, Louisville, KY
2. Lamia Beard, 30 years old, Norfolk, VA
3. Ty Underwood, 24 years old, Tyler, TX
4. Yazmin Payne, 33 years old, Los Angeles, CA
5. Taja deJesus, 36 years old, San Francisco, CA
6. Penny Proud, 22 years old, New Orleans, LA
7. Brian Golec, 22 years old, Akron, OH*
8. Kristina Gomez Reinwald, 46 years old, Miami-Dade, FL
9. Keyshia Blige, 33 years old, Aurora, IL
10. Mya Hall, 27 years old, Fort Meade, MD
11. London Chanel, 21 years old, Philadelphia, PA
12. Mercedes Williamson, 17 years old, George County, MS
13. Ashton O’Hara, 25 years old, Detroit, MI**
14. India Clarke, 25 years old, Tampa, FL
15. K.C. Haggard, 66 years old, Fresno, CA
16. Shade Shuler, 22 years old, Dallas, TX
17. Amber Monroe, 20 years old, Detroit, MI
18. Kandis Capri, 35 years old, Phoenix, AZ
19. Elisha Walker, 20 years old, Johnston County, NC
20. Tamara Dominguez, 36 years old, Kansas City, MO
    *Brian identified as a woman until one year before being stabbed by his father. He then identified as an androgynous pansexual man.
    **Ashton identified as transgender but used male pronouns.
    ***stats from http://fusion.net/story/185799/2015-transgender-women-murdered-underreported/

Lately most of the news of trans people has been negative. Murders, violence, harmful and ignorant legislation… It is often hard to remember the great things that members of our community are doing in spite of all of this. So tonight we are going to focus on a member of our community that is not only surviving, but thriving and is helping other transgender and gender non-conforming people to do the same: the Founder and CEO of the Juxtaposed Center for Transformation in Atlanta, Tracee McDaniel.