ACRB-logo

Call Us:(404) 865-8622

acrb@atlantaga.gov

Monday - Friday:
8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Sat & Sun CLOSED

55 Trinity Avenue, S.W., City Hall Tower

Suite 1225
Atlanta, GA 30303

Tracee McDaniel

Tracee McDaniel

Tracee McDaniel was appointed by Mayor Kasim Reed and sworn in as a member of the Atlanta Citizen Board on October 11, 2016.

A trans human rights advocate and published author, 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 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 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 Equality” attributed to her becoming the Founder and Executive Director of Juxtaposed Center for Transformation, Incorporated which is an advocacy, consulting and social services referral organization, specifically designed to empower the non-monolithic Trans and Gender Non-Conforming community.

In addition to JCT being established to add credibility to Tracee’s service to community, Juxtaposed Center’s vision is to act as a collective body to provide basic, necessary, and fundamental resources to the Trans community.

Juxtaposed Center is also an anchoring organization for Trans Housing Atlanta Program Inc., which provides supportive and emergency housing resources to homeless and marginalized Trans and gender non-conforming people.

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.

In 2013 Tracee published “Transitions-Memoirs of a Transsexual Woman”, which chronicled her unordinary 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 hand-selected by producers to Rehearsal Stand-In for the legendary icon Diana Ross, during her “I Will Survive” music video shoot. Tracee was also featured in the VH1 Miniseries “The Jacksons”-An American Dream, all before meeting the man of her dreams.

After being retired from the entertainment stage now for well over a decade, In 2014 Tracee became a Vetted Trainer for the United States Department of Justice CRS Program “Law Enforcement and Transgender Community”, which is a life-affirming training that educates Federal Law Enforcement Officers on how to better interact with Trans people and treat us with dignity and respect.

Another highlight and milestone for Tracee was on March 31, 2015, she was invited to brief the 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.

Tracee felt affirmed by her community’s support after an unprecedented appointment in 2016 to serve a three-year term on the Atlanta Citizen Review Board. Tracee is currently representing the Office of Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on her second term, also unanimously elected to leadership serving as Board of Directors Vice Chair for the ACRB.

Progressing forward, In addition to previously facilitating Trans Cultural Competency Training for APD Academy Recruits, Tracee also credits her experiences after an eight week course at Atlanta Police Department’s Citizens Police Academy 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” is a love letter to her mother that chronicles more intimate insights into Tracee’s life’s journey 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.

Currently, after retiring from organizing Atlanta’s annual Trans Day of Remembrance Vigils for ten years, Tracee is also serving on Trans Housing Atlanta Program’s Board of Directors, Center for Civil and Human Rights TLGB Advisory Board and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom’s TLGBQI Advisory Council, currently serving a second term.

Conclusively, Tracee always and unapologetically puts the “T” first and believes that visibility saves lives.