The Risk It Takes to Bloom

On Life and Liberation
One of TIME magazine's 2025 WOMEN OF THE YEARWINNER of the LGBTQ+ Nonfiction, 2024 Best Book Awards Born in Augusta, Georgia, to devout Black Catholic parents, Raquel Willis grew up yearning for belonging in a world that offered little language for queerness and transness. Though surrounded by love, she felt isolated-adrift between faith, expectation, and a truth she couldn't yet name. At the University of Georgia, she discovered her first glimpses of liberation: community, love, and a space to explore her gender. Then, the sudden death of her father forced her to reckon with grief, identity, and legacy. These hard-won epiphanies fertilized the soil for her to bloom. After entering journalism-and concealing her truth to survive-Raquel was galvanized by the epidemic of violence against trans women of color, rising suicides of trans youth, and the erasure of Black trans power. She came out publicly, choosing truth over safety, and stepped into the work of collective liberation. From the streets of Atlanta to Oakland and New York, Raquel became one of the leading voices in a new generation of Black trans activism and feminism. Her story is a testament to the risk, and the power, of blooming against the odds.

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