Soon after, Brady-Davis stopped performing and started working with young people, in whom she saw her own struggles reflected. When the “Take Back Boystown” movement emerged in 2011 as a racist backlash against BIPOC youth hanging out in the Chicago gayborhood, she was appalled to witness the same people who’d cheered her on at clubs speaking out against LGBTQ+ youth who yearned for spaces to be themselves. “I said to myself, ‘I think I’m that, too.’” “There was one particular person at that time, who I’d worked with in the nightclub … and they told me that they were transitioning,” she said, referring to Phillippe Cunningham, who now sits on the Minneapolis City Council and became the first openly trans Black man elected to public office in the United States.
But over time, Brady-Davis recalled that she repeatedly asked herself “Am I trans?” Various brief yet meaningful moments prompted deeper reflection, especially as she witnessed others coming out. Precious was the stage name she gave herself in the mid-2000s while performing drag in Omaha, Nebraska, and her stunning performances eventually made her a force in Chicago’s drag scene after she relocated in 2008.
“And so within that basis, there was even a psychological root in my life of the power of one being able to speak things into existence.”Īlthough she didn’t end up leading a congregation and faced rejection from church after initially coming out as gay, Brady-Davis has since stood on platforms and behind podiums in a different way: to spread the gospel of inclusion and equity for marginalized people.
“In Pentecostal faith, people believe in the laying on of hands healing, to take away ailments and sickness, both spiritual and physically,” which was coupled with prayer, she said. She even took on the fiery speaking style of the preachers. The congregation warmly embraced her, Brady-Davis said, and she envisioned herself one day following in their footsteps through some form of ministry. The stately attire - power suits, pumps, glossy hairspray, manicured nails, and all - follows a Black church tradition of dressing up to be present in the Lord’s house. The Pentecostal church world was a staple of her childhood in Omaha, where she admired the women who donned their Sunday Best at her church.
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