Ray Quenga
Disruptors
The 2025 Out100: El Daña
These are the LGBTQ+ people making the world bolder and brighter in 2025.
Born in 1944, El Daña holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest performing drag king in the world. “I bring fantasy to the stage,” he says. “When I perform a Tom Jones or Julio Iglesias number … I inhabit their essence through a devoted study of performance and theater.”
El Daña has performed drag for 60 years and sees his work “as a bridge across different eras.” When he started in the 1960s, “it was not called drag but pantomime. And I was known not as a drag king but as a male impersonator.” In subsequent years, El Daña applied “regality and glamour” to his performances. The drag legend now feels pride and joy in “seeing so many talented drag kings” and hopes that “they will have the opportunities I was denied.”
The LGBTQ+ community needs “love, kindness, and respect now more than ever, not only from the outside world but also within” the community, El Daña says. “Our greatest asset has always been our ability to care for and protect one another against all odds.”
Keep an eye out for El Daña, who’s starring in two upcoming documentaries and looks forward to booking more performances. @elsiesaldana0
Bernardo Sim
Bernardo Sim is the deputy editor of Out. He’s also a staff contributor to The Advocate, PRIDE, and other equalpride publications. Born and raised in Brazil, he’s lived in the U.S. for over 15 years and speaks four languages.
You can follow Bernardo Sim on Instagram. You can also find him on Bluesky, Threads, X/Twitter, and TikTok.
Bernardo Sim is the deputy editor of Out. He’s also a staff contributor to The Advocate, PRIDE, and other equalpride publications. Born and raised in Brazil, he’s lived in the U.S. for over 15 years and speaks four languages.
You can follow Bernardo Sim on Instagram. You can also find him on Bluesky, Threads, X/Twitter, and TikTok.
Michael Almonte
Trudy RingTrudy Ring is The Advocate's senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she's interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud "old movie weirdo" and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and '40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.
Trudy Ring is The Advocate's senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she's interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud "old movie weirdo" and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and '40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.
Trudy Ring is The Advocate's senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she's interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud "old movie weirdo" and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and '40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.
The 2025 Out100: Precious Brady-Davis
These are the LGBTQ+ people making the world bolder and brighter in 2025.
Michael Almonte
Precious Brady-Davis is the first out Black transgender woman to hold public office in Cook County, Illinois, and the first trans person to serve on any U.S. water reclamation district. She was appointed a commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago in 2023 and won election to the post in 2024.
Now running for reelection, she’s tasked with protecting the drinking water of more than 5 million people, safeguarding Lake Michigan, and advancing climate-resilient infrastructure. She is also chief strategy officer for Chicago’s Center on Halsted, the Midwest’s largest LGBTQ+ community center.
“Together these roles show that infrastructure and public service are inseparable, delivering real results that people can see and feel in their daily lives,” she says.
For Brady-Davis, growing up in a household that didn’t affirm her identity, reading Out “was a light in the darkness,” and now she hopes to be that light for someone else.
While serving her constituents, husband, and daughter, and fighting for an inclusive future, she adds, “I still will make time to buy more shoes.” @preciousbradydavis