Tracy Baim has been named a 2026 Community Grand Marshal for her decades of work documenting LGBTQ+ life, history, and activism in Chicago and beyond. A journalist, historian, and community leader, Baim is the executive director of Press Forward Chicago, a pooled fund supporting community journalism, and the co-founder and owner of Windy City Times.

Her contributions to journalism and the LGBTQ+ movement have been widely recognized, including Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Chicago Headline Club (2013) and the Chicago Journalists Association (2022). She was inducted into the NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists Hall of Fame in 2014, the Association for Women Journalists–Chicago Chapter Hall of Fame in 2018, and the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame.

Baim is also a co-founder of Pride Action Tank and the Illinois LGBT Chamber of Commerce, served as co–vice chair of Gay Games VII in Chicago, and founded the March on Springfield for Marriage Equality in 2013. She has written and/or edited 14 books, most recently a biography of Howard Brown Health, preserving and elevating LGBTQ+ history for future generations.