Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Hi, I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelley and I'm Carol Masser. Welcome to the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week Extra. It's our weekly podcast. This is where
Speaker 1: we give you one of our full interviews from the week,
Speaker 1: and this is a good one. In the magazine's recent
Speaker 1: equality issue, nine individuals were interviewed trans workers who talked
Speaker 1: about their personal experiences and Jason. That included Precious Brady Davis.
Speaker 1: She shared her personal experience about coming out as a
Speaker 1: transgender individual. Pracias joined us from Chicago. Here's what she
Speaker 1: had to say. My name is Precious Brady Davis, and
Speaker 1: I am a proud African African American. I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: that again. Thank you so much, care for having me.
Speaker 1: Good morning, Pracius Brady Davis. I am a proud black
Speaker 1: trans woman. I originally grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and
Speaker 1: I come from a very conservative family. My grandmother was
Speaker 1: very religious, and at a young age I showed very
Speaker 1: feminine tendencies and I was very acutely aware at a
Speaker 1: young age that I was in fact a little girl,
Speaker 1: and so as I became an adolescent, I became gender
Speaker 1: queer and started experimenting with my gender and my sexuality.
Speaker 1: And as I became an adult, the feeling and the
Speaker 1: desire was still there. Uh and I and I and
Speaker 1: I transitioned when after I graduated college, Well, hold on
Speaker 1: for a secon because I want to take a step back,
Speaker 1: go back to growing Sorry no, no, no, no, don't
Speaker 1: be sorry, but go back to you know, talking about
Speaker 1: growing up in Almaha, you said, you know, your grandmother
Speaker 1: was very religious. You know what was family life. Was
Speaker 1: it hard that you felt like you couldn't really reveal
Speaker 1: who you were? Yeah, it was hard for me growing
Speaker 1: up being gender queer, especially growing up in Nebraska, growing
Speaker 1: up in a rural environment, you know, where I wasn't
Speaker 1: really exposed to diversity. I was scolded and this I
Speaker 1: planned for displaying feminine tendencies and wanting to exist in
Speaker 1: an identity that was not normative. How did you know
Speaker 1: that you were gay? Because you know, I was reading
Speaker 1: somewhere that people were asking you if you were gay
Speaker 1: in fourth grade. You're young, You're still young. Um by
Speaker 1: that time, did you know? Okay, yeah, this is who
Speaker 1: I am. I didn't know, like I'm actually I'm writing
Speaker 1: a book, right now I'm writing a memoir of my life.
Speaker 1: The memoir is titled I Have Always been Me. And
Speaker 1: so when I was in fourth grade, when people were
Speaker 1: asking me, are you gay, I didn't know people assigned
Speaker 1: an identity to me way before I ever had a
Speaker 1: chance to to figure out how I identified. On the inside,
Speaker 1: I was just being me, And I think that's that's
Speaker 1: a fact for thousands of queer kids in the world.
Speaker 1: They're just being who who they authentically are. And I
Speaker 1: liked playing with girls toys, I liked playing with barbies,
Speaker 1: I liked playing dress up, and I didn't want to
Speaker 1: be a little boy. But there was no education, um
Speaker 1: at that time, surrounding gender identity or identifying as transgender
Speaker 1: or being gender nonconforming, and so I just showed up
Speaker 1: in in the world without definition. Yeah, that must have
Speaker 1: been really hard for you. Yeah, it was definitely a struggle.
Speaker 1: I was definitely bullied. I was definitely harassed. It was
Speaker 1: hard to be so strong in my personality. Uh, in
Speaker 1: who I was without having any kind of figure to
Speaker 1: identify it with. I was just being me. Uh. It
Speaker 1: wasn't until recent years that we've started to have this
Speaker 1: massive sidal conversation around gender and transgender identity, and so
Speaker 1: it was a struggle until I finally understood when I
Speaker 1: was in college, when I took an LGBT literature course,
Speaker 1: that we have a great history, a great history of
Speaker 1: trans and gender not conforming people who have been erased
Speaker 1: from the narratives of history. And I felt like I
Speaker 1: was discovering a great history, uh that I was a
Speaker 1: part of. Did you have a lot of friends? And
Speaker 1: I'm curious because I think, right, we're always constantly from
Speaker 1: from being from a little kid to you know, an adult,
Speaker 1: you're always you know, aligning yourself with people that you
Speaker 1: relate to. What was it like as a kid? I
Speaker 1: think as a kid it was extremely isolating that because
Speaker 1: I didn't have a lot of people who understood what
Speaker 1: was actually going on. I think there was a lot
Speaker 1: of discipline happening in my world, just because I was
Speaker 1: involved in church and the Pentecostal church at that and
Speaker 1: there were leaders in that church who wanted to see
Speaker 1: one form of gender identity displayed. You know, I remember
Speaker 1: a youth pastor telling me that I needed to switch
Speaker 1: I'll watch Chitty their hand because it was feminine. The
Speaker 1: pastor told me, you know, that I needed to walk straight,
Speaker 1: uh and upright. There was a lot of policing of
Speaker 1: my behavior as as a young person, and even the
Speaker 1: way that I approached teachers. I remember, as at a
Speaker 1: young age, I was putting my knees in my t
Speaker 1: shirt because I was cold, and one of my teachers said, oh,
Speaker 1: you're making bosoms at me. And so all of my
Speaker 1: my gender action they were policed as a young person.
Speaker 1: I think it was really isolating. So let's talk about
Speaker 1: when you were able to kind of open up and
Speaker 1: you transitioned after college while you were working. Tell us
Speaker 1: about that time period of your life. Yeah, so after college,
Speaker 1: I did the whole party, have a good time. But
Speaker 1: then I came back to my first love. I was
Speaker 1: performing as a show girl, and there was an onslaught
Speaker 1: in Chicago's Boys Town neighborhood of it was called take
Speaker 1: Back Waste Town, and it was a movement to eradicate
Speaker 1: gay by and trance youth of color out of the
Speaker 1: neighborhood because they felt that they weren't consumers of that
Speaker 1: neighborhood and they didn't want to see homeless young people
Speaker 1: around that it was a scourge to the entertainment district.
Speaker 1: And so I decided to myself that I can make
Speaker 1: a difference like in the world. And I left being
Speaker 1: a show girl and I said, I have a degree
Speaker 1: in the arts, I can do something else. And my
Speaker 1: my first love was social justice. When I was in
Speaker 1: high school, I attended this program called any Town that
Speaker 1: educated me on bias, bigotry, and prejudice in the world.
Speaker 1: And so I decided that I could have a better
Speaker 1: impact in my community if I serve as a community
Speaker 1: leader and I work with those young people uh and
Speaker 1: serve as a mode of inspiration, and that I can
Speaker 1: impart into their lives. And just as I thought that
Speaker 1: I was going to impart into their lives, they imparted
Speaker 1: into my life. Once I started working at the Center
Speaker 1: on Hallstead, at that LGBT community center, I saw these
Speaker 1: young high school students who are walking around proud, visible,
Speaker 1: and trans in their high schools. And I said, if
Speaker 1: this sixteen year old over here can walk in her
Speaker 1: high school and can be trans and proud, so can I.
Speaker 1: It's great. We'll tell us because I think part of
Speaker 1: us understanding one another, whoever we may be, is understanding
Speaker 1: the process of what you had to do to transition.
Speaker 1: Can you talk to us a little bit about that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think everyone's transition is different and so um. In
Speaker 1: terms of like my process, it was simply a journey
Speaker 1: to authenticity. Uh. And first I started um fully dressing
Speaker 1: and identifying as a woman. That was the first step
Speaker 1: I had trouble identified that I could be a woman
Speaker 1: in the flesh and body that I that I lived in.
Speaker 1: I remember coming to work the says in the beginning stages,
Speaker 1: you know, when I was working at Center on Halstead
Speaker 1: and I said to one of my co workers, I
Speaker 1: wish I could be sitting here as precious, and he
Speaker 1: said to me, you can. And so it's about people
Speaker 1: affirming the name that you go by, affirming the gender
Speaker 1: that you identify as. It's about celebrating, it's about creating
Speaker 1: a safe space. Um. And I'm curious how everyone treated
Speaker 1: you coworkers, boss, as you transitioned. Family. Yeah, yeah, so
Speaker 1: I think my family, starting with my family, I think
Speaker 1: that it was a journey for them and I never
Speaker 1: ever once doubted that they loved me. Uh, and they
Speaker 1: supported me through the transition. They may not have understood,
Speaker 1: but I had a blessing that a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't that I was never you know, rejected or ousted
Speaker 1: up for my transgender identity. Conflicted, yes, but I was
Speaker 1: at least accepted, And so I think there's a leg
Speaker 1: up there In terms of my colleagues. I think that
Speaker 1: my colleagues were like very supportive in in my transition.
Speaker 1: The administration, it was crazy. It was working in an
Speaker 1: LGBT center and I wanted to change my name simply
Speaker 1: in the email system, and they wouldn't change my name
Speaker 1: in the email systems because they said that I hadn't
Speaker 1: legally changed my name, and at that time, I didn't
Speaker 1: have the financial resources to go about a full legal
Speaker 1: name change. And you would think that an LGBT community
Speaker 1: center would be the most affirming. So it shows that sometimes,
Speaker 1: even like within our community, we still have work to
Speaker 1: do and we have a long way to go. Well,
Speaker 1: And that's what I wanted to ask you, Precious, because
Speaker 1: I know in the magazine we actually talked to nine
Speaker 1: individuals trans workers. They each talked about their personal experiences,
Speaker 1: including you, and they talked about support or not getting
Speaker 1: support and what could be better, whether it's healthcare, the
Speaker 1: actual medical process of transitioning, government involvement, education, what could
Speaker 1: be better there from your from your own experience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we need affirming healthcare. I think trans people
Speaker 1: deserve to have the right to have a service provider
Speaker 1: who understands their unique needs without triggering them, without disrespecting them.
Speaker 1: I think that we need basic rights in terms of
Speaker 1: equality with our government. Trans people deserve to serve in
Speaker 1: the military. Trans people deserved to exist in our society
Speaker 1: and pursue whatever desire or dream that they have. You know,
Speaker 1: there's this onslaught from the Trump administration, you know, against
Speaker 1: transgender people, and I think that it's about recognizing our
Speaker 1: humanity and not villainizing us and to humanizing us. And
Speaker 1: I think that it's about showing us and our humanity
Speaker 1: that we are mother's, father's, brothers, sisters, you know, colleagues, uh,
Speaker 1: and a multitude of things, that we are not just
Speaker 1: like one thing. And I think it starts with just
Speaker 1: recognizing our humanity. Yeah, And I think it's good that
Speaker 1: we talk about these stories so that we all have
Speaker 1: a better understanding of one another, because we all have differences,
Speaker 1: but we need to embrace it. And congratulations on being
Speaker 1: you and coming by and telling your story, precious, Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me, and you've been
Speaker 1: listening to Bloomberg Business Week Extra, be sure to turn
Speaker 1: into Bloomberg Business Week Radio Live Monday through Friday at
Speaker 1: two pm Wall Street Time. I'm Jason Kelly and I'm
Speaker 1: Carol Masser, and this is Bloomberg