The Stonewall Inn was a haven for the most marginalized members of the queer community: homeless queer youth, drag queens, trans sex workers, and gender-nonconforming people of color. Two of the most prominent figures in the uprising were Marsha P. Johnson (a self-identified drag queen and trans activist) and Sylvia Rivera (a Latina trans woman and co-founder of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, or STAR).

Despite this foundational role, the transgender community has often been sidelined within mainstream LGBTQ culture. In the 1970s and 80s, as the gay rights movement sought respectability, trans people and drag queens were sometimes excluded from "mainstream" gay organizations for fear that gender nonconformity would hurt their public image. This tension—between assimilationist politics and radical gender liberation—remains a quiet fault line within LGBTQ culture today.

Modern trans activism has pushed LGBTQ culture to confront its own racism, classism, and ableism. High-profile organizations like the National Center for Transgender Equality and grassroots groups like the Transgender Law Center prioritize the most marginalized voices—because a movement that leaves behind its most vulnerable members is a movement that will fail.

The transgender community has taught LGBTQ culture that the fight is not just about the freedom to love the same gender—it is about the freedom to be one’s authentic self, without apology, without violence, and without having to fit into anyone’s boxes. As the legal and cultural attacks on trans people intensify, the entire LGBTQ community is being tested: Will we protect those who protected us at Stonewall?