Figures like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were central to the Stonewall Uprising , which catalysed global LGBTQ pride.
It was a warm summer evening in June 1969, and the streets of New York City's Greenwich Village were buzzing with life. The Stonewall Inn, a small gay bar on Christopher Street, was packed with patrons seeking refuge from the discrimination and persecution they faced daily. Among them was Marsha P. Johnson, a black transgender woman and prominent figure in the city's LGBTQ community.
Attend Transgender Day of Remembrance vigils. Learn the names of trans people killed each year. Speak up when you hear transphobic jokes or rhetoric within gay or lesbian friend groups.
Today, as anti-trans rhetoric reaches a fever pitch, the larger LGBTQ culture faces a choice: Evolve into a truly inclusive family that fights for the most vulnerable among them, or fragment into single-issue silos. If history is any guide, queer people have always been at their strongest when they stand together.
