Out100 List: Chicago’s Hyde Park LGBTQ+ Community Center Leader Channin Lynn Parker Honored by Out Magazine

CHICAGO (WLS) — The LGBTQ+ community center in the Hyde Park neighborhood is known for helping Chicago’s transgender and gender nonconforming community.

Its leader, Channin Lynn Parker, is now in the national spotlight. OUT magazine named her one of this year’s “100 Best.”

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It’s an important month for a local woman who runs an organization that helps people who are often marginalized.

Parker leads the Brave Space Alliance in Hyde Park. She calls it a community organization “T” LGBQ Plus.

“We say T to LGBQ Plus because we know that the LGBT community, the transgender community, have experienced the most marginalization and are experiencing the most emergencies and crises,” Parker said.

Brave Space Alliance also provides food, medical services, housing and clothing to transgender and gender non-conforming people in need.

“(IN) our closet…people can access gender-affirming clothing,” Parker said.

Parker’s leadership has earned her the prestigious honor of being named one of this year’s OUT 100 by national OUT magazine.

“And it’s really great. It’s humbling and gratifying to be named among national figures like Laverne Cox, Senator Sarah McBride, Little Nas X, for God’s sake, I mean, wow,” Parker said. “So once again, I’m honored to be recognized for the work that I’ve done and worked so hard for this community.”

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The south suburban Park Forest native also shared her story of transition in the late ’90s, which she said was even more difficult during that era, but she said she was lucky to have supportive parents.

“My mother handled it gracefully and knew it was important to her to have a healthy child so that he would become a healthy adult,” Parker said.

Parker knows that not all transgender people, even in 2024, will receive this kind of support, which is why she is so enthusiastic about the Brave Space Alliance.

“So we know that while yes, we are so proud of the strides we’ve made over the last 50 to 60 years, we know we have a long way to go,” Parker said.

Parker was one of several Out100 award winners nominated by eight ABC-owned television stations across the country.

You can find the “Out100” issue of OUT magazine on newsstands next week. The full list can be seen Here.

At the end of the year there will be a special edition of Out100 featuring all the honorees live and on television.