Precious Brady-Davis

Brady-Davis was born in Omaha, Nebraska,[1] and was in foster care as a toddler.[3][1] At age five, she moved in with her grandfather and his wife.[3][1] In high school, she started to explore her identity.[3][1]Brady-Davis attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.[1] While living in Lincoln, Nebraska, she began performing drag using the name "Precious Jewel".[1] She later transferred to Columbia College Chicago.[1] While in Chicago, she came out as gay.[3][1] Living in Boystown, she made a name for herself as a performance artist.[3] She launched a US$1.6 million dollar CDC HIV Prevention program at Chicago's Center on Halsted, an LGBT community center.[4][3][1] There, she was also a mentor of LGBT teens.[3]She and her husband Myles Brady-Davis had a baby girl in 2019.[3] They became the first transgender couple to have their gender identities listed correctly on an Illinois birth certificate.[3][5] They live in Hyde Park.[3] She currently works as a Chief Strategy Officer at the Center on Halsted and is on the Board of Com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
That's gonna be beautiful in my office. Good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Welcome to the city of Chicago. I know many of
you traveled far and wide to get here. My name
is Commissioner Precious Brady Davis, and I am a commissioner
here at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. That's the agency
that protects the source of our drinking water for over

(00:26):
five million people. I also have the great privilege of
being the chief Strategy Officer at Center on Halsted, which
is our LGBTQ community Center.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
As a teenager, I spent my weekends surrounded by young
people who believe the world could be better, and we
dared to imagine how to make it so. Those weekends
taught me something lasting. Education just isn't a about knowledge.

(01:01):
It's about courage, empathy and truth. It's about preparing young
people to build a better world. That's why it pains
me to see across the country the very foundation of
the education under attack. When we silence teachers and we

(01:27):
ban books, we just don't erase stories. We weakened our democracy.
Here in Illinois, we have chosen a different path. We
teach that diversity is our strength. We teach that climate
change is real. We teach that every young person deserves

(01:52):
to learn the truth about their world and their own
power to change it. Invest in schools, protect our environment,
and build policies woted in truth, not fear. There are
moments when the fight for truth feels hard, but I

(02:16):
believe we stand on the shoulders of the brave people
who came before us, and we cannot let them down.
In my career, I've seen what happens when hope is
backed by policy and persistence.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
I sit on Hall Said, where I began my journey.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Seeing a young trans woman of color walk in her
truth shifted the trajectory of my own identity. At Columbia College, Chicago,
I returned to advise the very institution that once struggled
to understand a gender not conforming kid like me.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
At the Sier Club, I fought corporate polluters to.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Protect our waterways and our right to clean drinking water,
joining coalitions that retired toxic coal plants in the communities,
and today, as Commissioner, I'm entrusted with safeguarding the drinking
water of more than five million people across Cook County,
carrying forward the legacy of those who reversed the course

(03:28):
of the Chicago River and saved a city. I'm deeply
grateful to Epstein, Becker and Green for recognizing this work
because when private and public sectors stand together for justice,
we move the needle.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
But it cannot end here.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
There are more preciouses out there waiting to be seen, supported,
and mentored. In today's America. There are those who would
have people like me that we are the threat, that
we are what keeps America from being great.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
But I stand before you.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
It's a wife, a mother, and a public servant who
believes that greatness comes not from exclusion but from empathy,
not from division, but from shared purpose. It's not enough
to talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
We must embody those words to.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Show that LGBTQ rights or human rights. We must tackle
LGBTQ youth homelessness, to prove that environmental justice is racial justice.
We must hold corporate and polluters accountable when they poison
black and brown communities without remediation. And to fulfill the
promise of democracy itself, we must ensure that our policies

(04:59):
are but and our boats reflect the worth of.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Dignity for every person.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
So I ask for you in this moment, to speak out,
to wield your voice, to wield your.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Power, and I ask you do not stay silent.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
I cannot take the mic today and not speak to
the people who are being targeted simply for being who
they are, in particular across Chicago and across the nation,
immigrants who are the pulse of America, who feel our economy,
who remind us of what this country has always promised, hope.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Opportunity, and belonging.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Tragically, our city has become ground zero for a dystopian nightmare.
Every day there is some new cruelty.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Just this morning, I did tell.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
My five year old why we were looking through our
cabinets to fill our neighborhood fridge, so she could understand
that everyone deserves access to food and that caring for
one another is how we keep hope alive.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
I want my.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Daughter to grow up in America that just doesn't talk
about compassion, but practice is it. This is not time
to sit on the sidelines. This is the moment to stand,
This is the moment to speak, This is the moment
to act.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
The strength of.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
This country has always come from who we include, not
who we exclude. Because I believe we are bound together
by a simple truth.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
The fight for one of us is the fight for
all of us. And when rooms look like America, we
are better for it, and so are our children.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Thank you,