It is impossible to write the history of LGBTQ culture without centering transgender people. The commonly cited "birth" of the modern gay rights movement—the Stonewall Uprising of 1969—was led by trans women and gender non-conforming individuals. Figures like Marsha P. Johnson (a self-identified drag queen and trans activist) and Sylvia Rivera (a Venezuelan-American trans woman) were not merely participants; they were the tip of the spear.
A gay person does not need permission from a psychiatrist to be gay. A trans person, however, historically needed a diagnosis of "Gender Identity Disorder" (now Gender Dysphoria) to access hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or surgery. This medicalization of identity has led to unique battles over healthcare, insurance coverage, and the right to bodily autonomy—battles that are largely foreign to the rest of the LGBTQ spectrum. shemale satiny tube