Before traveling to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention as an honored guest of the National LGBTQ+ Task Force Action Fund, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy connected with the Washington Blade by Zoom for an interview from her home in Little Rock, Ark.

Raised in the South Side of Chicago during the 1940s and 50s, the author, activist, and community organizer has been at the forefront of queer and trans liberation movements for decades, a witness to the 1969 Stonewall Riots who then had a front row seat to the scourge of HIV/AIDS in San Francisco in the 1980s and 90s.

“And right now,” she said, the trans community is “facing the same bullshit they tried in ’69, ’65, ’64.”

Before Thursday’s call, Miss Major had received a letter from Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), a White House press secretary during the Trump administration and one of the conservative officials who objected to the Biden-Harris administration’s policy of allowing U.S. citizens to select “X” as a gender marker on official documents, including passports and other forms of identification.

A few months ago, Miss Major’s assistant Muriel Tarver explained, Sanders “issued a proclamation saying that anyone that had an ‘X’ on their driver’s license or state-issued ID, that it would have to come off. She said that they would not be harassed, that just when you went to renew your identification, it would be changed at that time.”

The letter, Tarver said, certainly seems like harassment. “They didn’t wait for her to go and get her new ID. And her ID has not expired. It’s not getting ready to expire. But here’s the letter.”

Those who are familiar with Miss Major’s brand of activism might be surprised by her work with the Task Force Action Fund, her appearance at the DNC, and perhaps especially her commitment to criss-crossing the country to talk voters out of supporting Donald Trump and into supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’s historic bid for the White House.

As shown in “Major!” the 2015 documentary about her life, and a 2023 memoir comprised of interviews with journalist Toshio Meronek called “Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary,” the activist’s foremost concerns have always been centered around providing for her trans brothers and sisters.

Her work on this front is never ending: Tarver gave the Blade a virtual tour of Miss Major’s property, which she has used as a refuge for trans folks who are free to stay and relax on the well-kept grounds, which are complete with a guest house and a pool.

Where she may have sidestepped electoral politics in the past, however, there is “so much happening to whereby you had to get involved in it now,” Miss Major said. “But before it was just — my community has suffered so bad for so long, so often, that you’ve got to do something to help them navigate the bullshit that goes on in the world.”

This usually means ensuring that basic needs are met. “And I don’t feel as if politics helps that,” she said, because “it’s got to be people and the relationships you build and what you build together with another person that makes it better.”

Miss Major added, “I want things to be better for all of us. You know, transgender and non transgender people.” And as society has begun to make space for those with non-cisgender identities, the backlash has been vicious. “They’re so afraid of opening up to us,” she said.

When it comes to political candidates, she said, “As an ordinary person, you know, I’m concerned about food and gas and clothing and shit like that. And, you know, who else cares about this? I need to know the person who’s in charge cares and is going to do something to alleviate the stress on me to get it.”

By the time President Joe Biden announced his decision to step aside on July 21 — well before that pivotal moment, Tarver stressed — Miss Major and the Task Force Action Fund were ready to spring into action.

“It was quite a service act that he did for the country,” Miss Major said. “Because I really believe that he could have gone further, but he just didn’t have what it took. And so when he stepped out and made her the nominee, he invigorated, and he poured such joy to this country, and hope, and belief that it can be done, that [Trump] can be stopped.”

“As we all heard about the potential for Biden stepping down and putting aside his personal and political interests for the sake of democracy, which is a pretty historical and brave thing, we all wanted to be ready to respond to what would happen,” Task Force Action Fund Communications Director Cathy Renna told the Blade by phone.

Issuing a joint endorsement of Harris was historic for both Miss Major and the Task Force Action Fund, Renna said. “We have not endorsed anyone since Jimmy Carter, which was shortly after our founding, right? So, we’re talking about almost 50 years ago.”

“We wanted a bold choice,” she said, “and we also understand what’s at stake in this election.”

Miss Major sees the contrast between the two candidates as clear and compelling; the difference between sanity and insanity, competence and chaos. “Do you want someone who lies to you? Or do you what someone who tells the truth?”

Trump spreads filth and disorder like the character from Charles M. Schulz’s “Peanuts” comic strip who is perpetually surrounded by a cloud of dust and detritus, she said.

Harris, on the other hand, represents the future. “She’s breaking the ceiling. There’s a glass ceiling. And when she breaks through, she’s gonna go on,” Miss Major said. “And after this, something like 10s of 1000s of people are gonna go through that, too. It’s just going to be phenomenal.”

By the time Harris was first elected to serve as San Francisco District Attorney in 2004, Miss Major for years had worked in food banks and in other roles providing direct services to the trans community and home health services to those living with HIV/AIDS. That year, she was tapped to lead the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project.

Reflecting on Harris’s tenure, Miss Major said, “We became people to her. We weren’t some oddity that she reached for. She accepted the whole bunch, all of us. It was just a marvelous thing to be a part of. You know, finally, find somebody that believed in us.”

Along with her leadership on marriage equality — as one of the earliest and most strident public figures who advocated for same-sex marriage — as district attorney, Harris fought against the so-called gay and trans panic defenses, courtroom arguments used to seek lesser penalties for violent crimes against LGBTQ people.

“For us, it’s incredibly important to get behind the candidate who is already an ally to our community and who we know, no matter what, is going to have an administration where we’ll have a seat at the table,” Renna said.

She added, “We may not always agree, but it’s an administration that will be willing to listen to us and hear us out and try to hopefully better understand the variety of issues, especially from the perspective of the Task Force Action Fund, which is very intersectional and will bring to the table not just the siloed queer issues.”

“For us,” Renna said, “it’s about more than marriage equality and trans affirming care. It’s about reproductive justice. It’s about climate. It’s about disability rights. And racial equity. So for us, you know, this [Harris-Walz] ticket really represents all the issues we care about.”

Harris is unflappable, Miss Major said. “They can’t shake her up or piss her off or anything to disturb her. She knows exactly what she’s going to do. She knows how she’s going to do it. And if you get in the way, I pity you.”

Looking ahead to the convention — and beyond

“Miss Major has been part of the family and orbit of the Task Force and Task Force Action Fund for years,” Renna said. “She was honored at Creating Change many years ago, she participated in Creating Change this year in New Orleans, and so many of the staff and folks who are at the Task Force love, respect, and are connected to her.”

So, Miss Major’s participation in the DNC is “not just a unique opportunity to partner and collaborate with her, but a really important piece of work to do for for our community, particularly for trans people of color,” Renna said.

“We are also giddy with anticipation,” she added. “Everyone we’re talking to is so excited she’s going to be there. She’s an icon. She is a pioneer. She’s an inspiration, but she’s also someone who speaks to the moment that we’re living in right now, because she’s lived through it in the past. And so, for, especially, younger folks to hear from her, I think it will give them context and hope and inspire them to be more engaged in the process.”

“I have a feeling we’re going to blow the roof off the United Center and all the other venues at the convention, because there’s so much positive energy around this,” Renna said.

“You can’t help but be excited” about Harris’s candidacy, Miss Major agreed.

The energy and enthusiasm, Renna said, are “what you need to counteract the level of lies, misinformation, and hate that’s coming at us, that has been coming at us from the other side” particularly since Trump’s emergence as a national political figure.

“I plan on going to every place Trump goes and speak to the tender loving people in those places and tell them what a liar he is and how insane he is and that they just shouldn’t vote for him,” Miss Major said. “So wherever it is from now till November, I will be there. Wherever he goes.”

“I’m gonna explain to the people that he not only lies, but he doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” she said. “And that we can feel safe and warm and secure in the fact that Harris is going to lead this country into the future.”

“We’re not going back — you know, I lived back there,” Miss Major said. “No, we’re not going there, because it hurts to think about that shit, you know, and it’s aggravating to have lived through it already, you know, I don’t want to go through it a second time.”