The modern LGBTQ+ rights movement didn’t start in boardrooms; it started in the streets, led largely by transgender women of color. Figures like and Sylvia Rivera were at the forefront of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. At the time, the distinction between "gay" and "transgender" was less rigid in the public eye—everyone who defied traditional gender and sexual norms was grouped together.

Transgender women of color experience disproportionately high rates of violence.

LGBTQ+ culture, at its best, teaches us that liberation is not a zero-sum game. My rights do not diminish yours. My identity does not threaten yours. The fight for trans rights is the fight for the right of every person to define themselves, to love whom they love, and to walk through the world with dignity.

: A person's internal sense of being male, female, both, or neither.

: "Transgender" or "trans" acts as an adjective (not a noun) for a diverse group, including trans women, trans men, and nonbinary individuals. Nonbinary & Gender-Nonconforming

: Cultures worldwide have recognized third genders for millennia, such as the Hijra in South Asia and the two-spirit traditions of Indigenous North Americans.