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Transgender Chicagoans Find Services, Support at Brave Space Alliance: ‘You Get Community Here’
For Trinity Coats, fashion has always been a way to express who she is.
“You can never go wrong with having something black,” she said while flipping through clothing racks inside the Dignity Closet at Brave Space Alliance.
Coats has been coming to the South Side organization for the past two years. What began as a search for clothing and other necessities became something much more.
“Beyond just the services you get, you get community here,” Coats said.
For many transgender people, finding an affirming place where they can simply be themselves isn’t something they take for granted. As transgender identities continue to be the subject of political and legal debates across the country, organizations like Brave Space Alliance say the demand for their services remains constant.
Founded in 2017, Brave Space Alliance was created to help address gaps in services for Black and Brown transgender people on Chicago’s South Side. Today, the organization provides housing support, food assistance, health programming, clothing through its Dignity Closet, and other resources designed to meet people’s immediate needs while helping them build stability.
“We provide dignified services,” community health manager Chrissy Huerta said. “Health, housing, food and identity are our main pillars that we basically go by, and we feel like that should provide essential services for a person to start their life and then build accordingly.”
The need remains significant. According to the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey, half of transgender adults delayed or avoided medical care because they feared being mistreated, and nearly one in five experienced homelessness during the previous year.
“I get calls every day,” senior outreach coordinator Courtney McKinney said. “People come up here looking for me every day. For housing. They ask them for clothing, need their hair done, need their makeup done. Those are services that we have here.”
Coats understands those struggles. She has experienced homelessness and said finding acceptance was not always easy. When asked what kept her going, Coats didn’t hesitate.
“What keeps me going is knowing that this is not the end of the journey,” Coats said. “To know that there’s people who’ve been upon my journey who showed me that even if the world is saying this, they’re not agreeing. They show that by the care, the love and the community.”
Brave Space Alliance leaders said that message has become even more important as federal policies affecting transgender Americans continue to change.
“One thing I want to uplift about trans people is they are themselves,” Huerta said. “They don’t want to be anybody else. So it’s extremely disheartening to hear that medical things are stripped of individuals. They can’t even receive certain medication.”
Coat said one of the most meaningful moments in her journey happened unexpectedly. When she first came to Brave Space Alliance, she discovered that one of the organization’s leaders was someone she already knew.
Huerta was a childhood friend.
“It’s beautiful to see and to know that one of my very close friends who’s helped me navigate this world as a queer person — whether she knew that during that time or not — she’s been able to be very instrumental to the greater being that I am today, the service provider that I am today,” Huerta said.
For Coats, the organization became more than a place to receive services. It became a place where she felt supported, accepted and connected to others who understood her experiences.
“Just by being in that room in and of itself,” Coats said, “it released so many pressures that I didn’t even know that I was carrying with me.”
In the end, Coats said what she wants is simple.
“We’re focused on civil liberties like everybody else,” Coats said. “We just want to be treated human.”
