Brave Space Alliance
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The Issue
Queer and trans people of color deserve services and advocacy networks that are affirming, culturally competent, and located near where they live and work. They deserve spaces that see and recognize them as the whole human beings they are. LGBTQ+ individuals are not always free to be their authentic selves. LGBTQ+ people who hold multiple marginalized identities often face additional discrimination, marginalization, and exclusion. Research shows that queer and trans people of color, in particular, are more likely than their peers to experience:
Bullying and harassment
Violence, including hate crimes, physical assault, and sexual assault, sometimes resulting in death
Homelessness and food insecurity
Systemic housing and employment discrimination
Higher rates of incarceration and overrepresentation in prisons, jails, juvenile detention, and immigration detention centers
Suicidal thoughts and mental health crisis
Community stigmatization and social exclusion
However, many struggle to receive the services and support they deserve to prevent or heal from these experiences.
Brave Space Alliance set out to change that on the South and West Sides of Chicago.
Who is Brave Space Alliance?
Brave Space Alliance is the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ+ Center dedicated to creating and providing affirming, culturally competent, for-us by-us resources, programming, and services for LGBTQ+ individuals on Chicago’s South and West sides.
Before Brave Space Alliance opened, the only trans-specific resources in Chicago were located in majority-white neighborhoods on the North Side. The North Side is geographically inaccessible to the majority of queer and trans people of color and regularly results in the hyper-policing of those who attempt to access services there.
Brave Space Alliance believes that queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming people of color deserve services that are accessible to them, in the neighborhoods in which they live.
They want Black and Brown queer and trans people to be seen, wherever and however they want to be seen. They do not use the language of “safety”, because they know that queer and trans people can never truly be safe in spaces and communities that are not of their own making. Instead, they emphasize bravery — living one’s fullest, truest, and best life in the face of oppression — and solidarity as ideals for the longevity of our communities and the best hopes for queer and trans liberation.
What Brave Space Alliance does
Brave Space Alliance fills a gap in the organizing of and services to trans and gender-nonconforming people by breaking down barriers to living full and healthy lives.
Promoting economic justice
Trans people experience high rates of joblessness and underemployment. When they do find work, they are often discriminated against, stigmatized, and denied equal access to job-related benefits including adequate health insurance coverage.
Brave Space Alliance supports trans workers to fight employment discrimination and systematic un/underemployment. Its Employment Justice Program helps trans workers find jobs and opportunities in union-protected and affirming workplaces. The Brave Business Network provides training and coaching to employers, assisting them to transform into pro-trans and anti-racist organizations where trans people can thrive. And, they run a Job Board where queer and trans workers can find LGBTQ+ friendly, good-paying jobs with benefits.
Eliminating housing insecurity
One in five trans people has experienced homelessness at some point in their lives. They are also more likely to have been discriminated against when seeking a home and to have been evicted from their homes due to their gender identity.
Brave Space Alliance runs a Financial and Housing Stability Mutual Aid Group and provides emergency housing relief services that link participants with safe and stable housing. They are also building a transitional housing program set to open in 2023.
Addressing food insecurity
People who are food insecure lack consistent access to enough food for an active and healthy life. Trans and gender-nonconforming people are at high risk of food insecurity due to high rates of poverty, joblessness, and homelessness.
Brave Space Alliance runs a Crisis Pantry Delivery Program that delivers staple pantry items and personal hygiene products to queer and trans people in need and a Crisis Pantry Network which supports pick-up pantry sites across Chicago. The pantries are supported by Donation Pods – groups of community members who raise funds to supply the pantries. Its Food Insecurity Mutual Aid Group teaches participants healthy cooking skills and how to access existing food networks or create new ones.
Creating visibility, bravery, and solidarity
Brave Space Alliance runs Identity-based Support Groups and a Sex Worker Safety Mutual Aid Group where individuals can find community and friendship with people who similarly identify. They operate The Makeup Room (a trans-feminine affirming room) and The Den (a trans-masculine affirming room) where trans, queer, and sex workers of color can pick up free items and take makeup classes.
Training and support for trans allies
Brave Space Alliance offers a comprehensive suite of training for organizations, groups, collectives, and individuals who want to build networks and strategies to dismantle oppression in all forms. Trainings include pro-trans HR training, creating a culture of trans affirmation, addressing anti-Blackness and racism, and decolonizing your workplace.
Why we love Brave Space Alliance
Up and coming
Brave Space Alliance was founded in 2017. In its short four-year history, half of which has been in the midst of a global pandemic, Brave Space Alliance has not only stayed afloat but has grown and expanded into an indispensable resource for Chicago’s trans community. By listening and responding to the needs of its community, Brave Space Alliance is able to provide crucial, holistic services that lift up queer and trans people of color and allow them to thrive not just survive.
Brave Space Alliance is more than just a resource and community center; it is a staging ground for community organizing and activism for the queer and trans community.
Services by-and-for trans people
Although the LGBTQ+ rights movement owes a debt of gratitude to Black trans activists (think: Marsha P Johnson), LGBTQ+ social services organizations historically cater to and are run by white, gay men. (This is partly as a response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic that disproportionately affected gay men in the 1980s and 90s). This means that far too often, there are no queer and Black trans people deciding how to serve queer and Black trans people.
LaSaia Wade, co-founder of Brave Space Alliance, is an Afro-Puerto Rican Indigenous trans woman from the far South Side. LaSaia explains, “We know our own narratives more than anyone…Trans people have always been displaced at alarming rates… even in other organizations or collectives... It feels good to always have a place to call home.”
Centering the most marginalized to reach everyone
Brave Space Alliance ensures that everything it does — from programs to resources, organizing, policy work, and right down to the employee handbook — focuses on the needs of the most marginalized. Services that focus on the common denominator rarely reach the most marginalized and historically excluded. However, when you center the needs of the most marginalized — in this case, Black and brown trans individuals — you are more likely to reach and benefit everyone.
Support to businesses, organizations, and other groups to become more trans-inclusive and affirming.
By increasing understanding of trans people’s lived experience, Brave Space Alliance helps to create spaces where trans people can be their authentic selves at work, and be treated with dignity, free from discrimination and stigma.
How you can help Brave Space Alliance
Learn more
Visit www.bravespacealliance.org
Donate
Support Brave Space Alliance to organize and provide services to trans and gender-nonconforming people on the South and West Sides of Chicago.
Volunteer
If you are located in the Chicago area, you can host a food drive or volunteer at the Crisis Pantry, The Make Up Room, and The Den. Get involved today.
Follow
@BraveSpaceAlliance on Facebook and Instagram, @BraveSpaceChi on Twitter.
Take Action
Check out our Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality post for ideas on how you can support LGBTQ+ rights across the country.
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Originally published September 21, 2021.
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