When Carter Cavazos, director of community partnerships at E3 Radio, arrived at House of gg in September, he didn’t realize he’d be among the last people to spend time there with Miss Major Griffin-Gracy before her death.
Griffin-Gracy had invited the E3 Radio team to spend a week in Arkansas at House of gg, a space she founded as a retreat for Black trans people to rest, heal and reconnect after years of activism and struggle.
“We’d wake up in the morning and have coffee with her on the porch,” Cavazos said. “We talked about horror movies, dating, messy breakups and advocacy. She saw a lot of the fight she had in me and asked me to continue the work.”
Just weeks later on Oct. 13, Griffin-Gracy died surrounded by loved ones at 78 years old.
Known as “Mama” to many, Griffin-Gracy was a leading figure in the transgender liberation movement for more than five decades.
“Her enduring legacy is a testament to her resilience, activism and dedication to creating safe spaces for Black trans communities and all trans people,” House of gg said in a statement announcing Griffin-Gracy’s death. “We are eternally grateful for Miss Major’s life, her contributions and how deeply she poured into those she loved.”
Griffin-Gracy was born on the South Side of Chicago in 1946 and moved to New York City in 1962. There she became involved in the city’s drag and ballroom scenes and later participated in the 1969 Stonewall Riots.
Throughout her life, Miss Major centered her activism on the most marginalized in the LGBTQ+ community, especially Black trans women and those affected by incarceration, police brutality, poverty and HIV/AIDS.
In the early 1980s, Griffin-Gracy cared for people living with HIV in New York, and later helped lead San Francisco’s first mobile needle exchange program.
Griffin-Gracy also mentored incarcerated trans women and advocated for prison reform while leading the Transgender, Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project.
She founded the House of gg—also known as the Griffin-Gracy Educational and Historical Center—in 2019 to create a place of rest and healing for Black trans people and movement leaders in the South.
Cavazos and the E3 Radio team were invited to stay at House of gg after interviewing Griffin-Gracy at the 2023 and 2024 Creating Change conferences. Cavazos said he had a special bond with Griffin-Gracy because he, too, is a Black transgender person with a history with the carceral system and a deep passion for abolition.
“I was a sociology major in college and I did my report on how abolition is built on the work of queer Black women, and I featured Miss Major pretty heavily,” Cavazos said.
Getting to spend time with Griffin-Gracy at House of gg was transformative, Cavazos said. The week was filled with moments of care and community that reflected Griffin-Gracy’s lifelong commitment to nurturing those around her.
“She really did prioritize our rest,” Cavazos said. “We weren’t allowed to be on our phones. Miss Major would tell us, ‘Get off your phone and get in the pool’ or ‘Get off your phone and get a drink.’”
Griffin-Gracy was strict about making sure Cavazos and the E3 Radio team rested because she saw the care itself as an act of resistance, Cavazos said.
“A lot of people know Miss Major as an activist and think about her work at Stonewall,” Cavazos said. “But the root of all of that is somebody who cared so deeply for her people, for her girls, for trans and nonbinary folks, that she was willing to do whatever it took to protect them. She loved so hard. She’s truly the mother of us all.”
Griffin-Gracy was also known for her sharp wit and collection of unforgettable catchphrases that captured her defiant spirit.
At House of gg, benches and mugs were engraved with Griffin-Gracy’s favorite acronym, TILIFI, short for “Tell it like it fucking is.”
“She would say, ‘You better give them motherfuckers hell. You better be ready to burn it all down. You better tell it like it fucking is, and you don’t stop,’” Cavazos said. “She had this fire in her spirit that she embodied and ignited in every person.”
Griffin-Gracy’s unfiltered wisdom was on full display when she returned to Chicago in 2023 for an intimate conversation at Brave Space Alliance, a Black- and trans-led community center on the South Side, close to where she grew up.
Griffin-Gracy’s visit was part of a national tour responding to rising anti-trans hostility in the U.S.
“Relax and feel the security of all of you together,” she told the crowd. “You’re part of a group—a family—so count on that and feel it in your heart and soul. Believe in one another and fight together.”
Channyn Lynne Parker, outgoing CEO of Brave Space Alliance who was there for Griffin-Gracy’s 2023 visit, recalled Griffin-Gracy’s presence as “walking defiance.”
“In a community where the life expectancy for trans women is 31, Miss Major’s passage into the realm of ancestors is an act of victory,” Parker said. “She lived beyond expectation, beyond fear, beyond the limits the world tried to place on her, and in doing so, she redefined survival itself.”
Parker said Griffin-Gracy’s advocacy saved lives and “allowed others to die with dignity.”
“She fought for our right to breathe, to live, to be seen in fullness,” Parker said. “She leaves behind more than grief. She leaves behind a living legacy, a community rich with progeny who will carry her name down corridors of struggle, remembrance and triumph.”
Griffin-Gracy also returned to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention in 2024, where she was recognized by the DNC’s LGBTQ+ Caucus during a meeting at McCormick Place.
Addressing the caucus, Griffin-Gracy reflected how much progress had been made since the Stonewall Riots, but spoke frankly about the renewed attacks on transgender people under President Donald Trump.
“I’m not going back, I refuse to go back, and if he thinks we’re going back, fuck him,” Griffin-Gracy said at the time.
Griffin-Gracy’s words at the DNC captured the same fire that fueled her life’s work, and that spirit will guide the movement for years to come, her peers have said.
Leaders from the National Trans Visibility March announced the organization will honor Griffin-Gracy through upcoming events celebrating her life and impact on trans liberation. The group first recognized Griffin-Gracy in 2019 with its Torch Award for her lifelong commitment to visibility, justice and empowerment.
“We stand on the shoulders of giants like Miss Major,” said Marissa Miller, a Chicago-area leader and founder of the National Trans Visibility March. “Her legacy is not only in the vast movements she helped build, but in the countless lives she held, guided and inspired.”
Cavazos echoed Miller’s sentiment, saying Griffin-Gracy’s spirit lives on through the many people she inspired.
At House of gg, reminders of her presence still fill the space. Benches and signs reading “Miss fucking Major! I’m still here!!”—installed before her death as a testament to her longevity—now carry new meaning, Cavazos said.
“Even though she isn’t physically on this mortal plane anymore, she’s still here,” Cavazos said. “That energy, fight and passion she embodied—it’s still here because she put it into every single one of us. She’s still here because I’m still here—because we’re still here.”