Tracee McDaniel was born on January 20th 1967 in Sumter, South Carolina. After her father’s passing, her mother raised Tracee and her brother on her own. Growing up, Tracee always wanted the freedom to live her own life. She ran away from home for the first time at age seven, and then frequently as a teenager.
From an early age, Tracee knew she was not attracted to females and would often wear her mother’s makeup. At age 18, she moved away to Myrtle Beach and started living authentically as herself. Here, she performed as her alter ego Destiny (Your Mistress of Illusions) for the first time.
In 1988, she moved to Atlanta, Georgia and started moonlighting as Destiny. After a traumatic domestic violence relationship, Tracee moved to Los Angeles where she secured a job at the famous queer nightclub Peanuts. Whilst living in LA, she began a lucrative twenty-year career as a performance artist, performing as a backup singer and rehearsal stand-in for Diana Ross, and featuring in the TV show The Jacksons: An American Dream.
After moving back to Atlanta, she took a break from performing. After hearing about transgender, nonconforming, and non-binary people being denied access to shelters, she wanted to use her voice to make a difference. Thus began her career in advocacy.
In 2007, Tracee was the first transgender person invited to give a keynote speech at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. Afterwards, Tracee marched to The White House and lobbied the United States Congress to support a fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and increased HIV/AIDS funding. The same year, she founded the Juxtaposed Center for Transformation, Inc. as a vehicle for celebrating transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary people.
In 2013, she published her memoir Transitions: Memoirs of a Transsexual Woman. The following year, she joined the Obama administration’s US Department of Justice program ‘Law Enforcement and Transgender Community Training’, where she advised on curriculum development. She then joined over 50 transgender women of color to advise The White House on employment and economic equity as part of Women’s History Month and the International Day of Transgender Visibility.
Tracee has since delivered Trans Cultural Competency Training for the Atlantic Police Department (APD), and had a ten-year stint organizing Atlanta’s annual Transgender Day of Remembrance Vigils, for which she was the founder.
In 2016, Tracee was the first trans person to ever serve as chair of the Atlanta Citizen Review Board. Tracee was also one of the co-founders of the Trans Housing Atlanta program (THAP), which provides access to vital services and safe housing to transgender and gender non-binary individuals experiencing homelessness. THAP is the first nonprofit housing program of its kind in the southeast area. In 2021, Tracee received the Atlanta Phoenix Award.
Tracee McDaniel is an inspiring advocate for trans civil rights, a role she hopes will empower trans and gender non-conforming people. In sharing her story, she hopes to use her voice to educate people and to be visible.
