For many Chicagoans, Yaritza Perez is the face of human rights enforcement.
As project coordinator at the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, she is tasked with community outreach and education, speaking to residents about their protections under the Human Rights Ordinance and the Fair Housing Ordinance, and educating them about how to file a complaint if they believe they’ve suffered discrimination. She speaks to schools, religious groups, nonprofit organizations, social workers and more.
“What really drew me to CCHR was the nature of the work—having conversations with people, making sure they’re informed of their rights,” said Perez, a transgender, nonbinary, bisexual Mexican American. Perez uses she/her and they/them pronouns and accepts any used with respect, she said.
Perez leads workshops such as Discrimination 101, Hate Crimes, Housing Discrimination, and Workplace Discrimination. They’re all free. She has found that her audiences sometimes aren’t up to speed on their rights, and she seeks to correct that.
“One of the things that I find, especially when I’m talking about housing discrimination, is how many people experience discrimination due to having a Housing Choice Voucher, also known as the Section 8 voucher,” they said. These vouchers are provided by the federal government. “I’ve talked to people that can’t believe that it’s discrimination to refuse to rent to someone with a voucher since source of income is a protected class. Some case managers that I presented a workshop to said that they still see this daily.”
Housing discrimination is a particular problem for trans women, Perez noted. “For some women, things are going well, but then they meet the landlord and there’s no longer an apartment, or the unit was suddenly unavailable, or the landlord is ignoring their calls, etc.,” she said. “When people tell me their stories, I validate their feelings and try to empower them to file a complaint with our office.”
If the commission finds that illegal discrimination has indeed taken place, the complainant may receive compensation, monetary and otherwise, and the person or entity committing discrimination must pay a fine to the city.
Not all of her audiences are comfortable dealing with a representative of government, she said, but her identity “allows me to show up with compassion and empathy.”
“I’m going to bring my communities with me everywhere I go,” they added.
Perez assumed their post in July 2024 after stints as training coordinator with the Trevor Project and youth and training supervisor at the Indiana Youth Group, both of which serve LGBTQ+ young people. After growing up in Chicago with a Mexican immigrant mother, she “bounced around a lot” geographically, as she put it, having moved to Indiana to attend Purdue University. But she always wanted to return to Chicago, where she has a supportive family and many friends.
She came out as bi in high school, and her nonbinary identity was always there, but there wasn’t a term for it. “It was very freeing to be able to have a word for it,” they said, noting that being nonbinary means something different to everyone. “I can never imagine being in any closet ever again,” she added.
Perez, who turns 33 June 27, has seen some things change since her teen years, with young people coming out earlier. It’s “really wonderful that LGBTQ+ youth have access to their identity and their community,” she said.
But of course many issues remain. While Chicago is the Midwest’s safe haven for many LGBTQ+ people, it’s also the nation’s most dangerous city for Black trans women, Perez said. To deal with the problem of violence against trans women in general, in 2024, Mayor Brandon Johnson set up the Transfemicide Working Group, which recently completed its first report, “Addressing the Transfemicide State of Emergency in Chicago,” now available online.
There will be a public hearing on the report at the June 30 Chicago City Council meeting, convening at 10 a.m. at City Hall. Members of the public can offer comments on the report at the meeting or submit written comments by emailing committeeonhealthandhumanrelations@cityofchicago.org by 1 p.m. June 29.
The report details the experiences of all trans people in Chicago and offers recommendations on how city officials can better serve them, Perez noted. “The recommendations were based on input from trans people and their allies that came to one of the three meetings we had or filled out our survey,” she explained.
The working group was co-led by the Commission on Human Relations and the Chicago Police Department with input from the Department of Family Support Services and the Department of Public Health.
Given the situation in Chicago and elsewhere—and the Trump administration’s hostility to trans and gender-diverse people, Perez offered this advice: “Look out for each other. Speak up; don’t go silent.”
In her job, she feels that she is being part of the solution. “One of my favorite things about my role is that it’s allowing me to be a safe person for people,” she said. “I’m happy to be a resource for the people of Chicago.”
