Black History Month - Black Trans Women - February 18th

Today I want to present Ashlee Marie Preston. Ashlee is an African American transgender writer, communications strategist, and activist based in California. She first became known through online commentary and blogging, where she wrote about race, policing, poverty, and transphobia from her own lived experience as a Black trans woman. Much of her early public work focused on how Black trans women were often excluded even within broader LGBTQ spaces and how media narratives frequently ignored violence affecting them. She later moved into political communications and advocacy work, including serving as a surrogate during the 2020 U.S. presidential primary, which made her one of the first openly transgender people to hold a visible role in a national campaign communications effort. Beyond electoral politics, Preston has spoken publicly about incarceration, homelessness, and reentry, drawing from her own past experiences to argue for rehabilitation and social support systems rather than purely punitive approaches. Her public presence has always been tied to conversation and accountability. Preston often uses media appearances, writing, and speaking to challenge both institutions and community spaces about race, misogyny, and respectability politics. Her work reflects a broader pattern in Black trans history where visibility is used not simply for representation, but to force discussions about who receives safety, opportunity, and dignity in practice rather than in theory.