TLC’s famed wedding show Say Yes to the Dress featured its first transgender bride in an episode that airs tonight.
Transgender activist Precious Davis, who’s marrying her partner Myles Brady this summer, appears in the spin-off Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta, shopping for a wedding dress. In the clip above from tonight’s episode, Davis tries to describe her dream gown, explaining that she’s looking for an opulent mermaid cut designed for a queen.
“I feel royal and I am feeling like a bride,” she says after trying on a gorgeous ombre-ruffled dress. “I feel like a little Barbie.”
Davis—who teased her TLC appearance on Instagram—toldThe Advocate how important it is to show transgender love in all its variations. “Our representation shows that we are human beings, that we have emotions, that we have a desire to be loved, and to be held, and to have happiness,” she says. “When the life expectancy of a trans woman of color in the United States is 30 years old—I just turned 30 this year—it’s unprecedented.”
The episode was filmed last summer for Davis’ wedding, which is happening this summer at the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel.
Davis told DNAInfo Chicago: “We believe that our love story is revolutionary to trans people. We encourage people to believe again in love and that their love doesn’t come in one package. ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ was a really great example for us to use our activism in that way.”
The episode with Davis airs at 9 p.m. tonight on TLC.
