Transgender activists were pivotal in the earliest resistance against systemic persecution, often spearheading the riots that birthed the modern LGBTQ movement:

: Years before the Stonewall uprising, trans people fought back against police harassment at sites like Cooper Do-nuts in Los Angeles (1959) and Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco (1966).

: Transgender women of color, including Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera , were at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots, which sparked the first Pride celebrations.