Visual identity plays a vital role in community recognition and pride: Opinion | Milestones in the American Transgender Movement

: Figures like Miss Major Griffin-Gracy have spent decades advocating for transgender people in the prison system, while Phyllis Frye became the nation’s first openly transgender judge. Symbols and Cultural Expression

: Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were leading figures in the 1969 Stonewall Riots and founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), the first shelter for queer homeless youth in the U.S..

Transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, particularly women of color, were the "backbone" of the early movement: