Former Windy City Times 30 Under 30 honoree and beloved Chicago trans activist, artist and social worker Ian Harris Schroeder passed away Nov. 9, friends and family announced.
Schroeder had been battling brain cancer which was diagnosed in March of this year. They (preferred pronouns) were a family-ties case manager at Chicago House, an artistic coordinator with the Youth Empowerment Performance Project (YEPP) and a prior volunteer for LGBT and battered women’s advocacy organizations.
“Ian has spent their life crafting theater with street-based and LGBTQ young people as a method of storytelling and healing,” Windy City Times wrote on the occasion of Schroeder’s 2015 30 Under 30 honor of the best and brightest individuals in Chicago’s LGBTQQIA community. “Over the past five years, Ian has published phenomenological research on gender identity development, developed and facilitated gardening projects with adolescents experiencing incarceration, and supported families with refugee status from Somalia and Ethiopia to engage in theater and sports to process trauma. They hope to move forward in their life to use arts to collaboratively create a better world.”
Schroeder was engaged to marry Patrice Foster.
According to an interview given by Schroeder’s sister Dani to Windy City Times reporter Carrie Maxwell in April of this year, Schroeder was “looking forward to getting out in nature like they did as a kid when we visited the Black River near St. Louis, moving in with Patrice and celebrating their engagement with all of their loved ones.”
A statement from YEPP read “for almost three years Ian Schroeder has been a warrior, caregiver and inspiration to create safe spaces to support LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness through YEPP’s mission.”
“We don’t have words to explain our gratitude for your existence, your lessons, your contributions, your presence, your support, your LOVE,” the organization added. “We don’t have any doubt that you will continue fighting for a JUST WORLD from wherever your next life will be.”
A celebration of Schroeder’s life was held Nov. 11 in St. Louis, Missouri, with friends and family.