James R. Brudner ‘83 Memorial Prize and Lectures 2024-25: Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

The James Robert Brudner ‘83 Prize, established in 2000, is awarded annually to an accomplished scholar, artist, or activist whose work has made significant contributions for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and sexual minority communities. The Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies, and the Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies faculty are honored to present this prize to Miss Major Griffin-Gracy for 2024-25.

 

Miss Major is a Black, transgender activist who has fought for over fifty years for her trans/gender nonconforming community. Major is a veteran of the infamous Stonewall Riots, a former sex worker, and a survivor of Dannemora Prison and Bellevue Hospital’s “queen tank.” Her global legacy of activism is rooted in her own experiences, and she continues her work to uplift transgender women of color, particularly those who have survived incarceration and police brutality. Miss Major’s fierce commitment and intersectional approach to justice brought her to care directly for people with HIV/AIDS in New York in the early 1980s, and later to drive San Francisco’s first mobile needle exchange. As director of the TGI Justice Project, she’d return to prisons as a mentor to her ‘gurls’ inside. She now runs House of GG-TILIFI, a retreat center for trans and gender nonconforming leaders from the Southern U.S., in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Major’s Brudner Prize Lectures will take place:

in New Haven on Wednesday, October 23 at 5:00 PM in LORIA 250 (190 York Street), and

in New York City on Friday, October 25 at 5:00 PM at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center (208 West 13th Street).