To my cisgender siblings in the LGBTQ family: We love you. We have bled with you. But we are not your stepping stone to respectability. We are not a "controversial" branch of the family tree. We are the roots.
When we wave the rainbow flag, it is easy to assume that every color in it represents a single, unified experience. For the casual observer, "LGBTQ" is a single acronym for a single tribe. But for those of us living inside those letters, we know that the "T" has always had a complicated, beautiful, and often strained relationship with the "L," the "G," and the "B." beautiful ass shemale
And we aren't going anywhere.
In the 1960s and 70s, the lines between "transgender," "drag queen," and "gay" were blurry. Many trans women initially came out as gay men. Many lesbian bars turned away trans women. So, the trans community built their own spaces inside the movement. Rivera famously watched as the mainstream (cisgender) gay rights movement tried to leave the "gender freaks" behind. At a 1973 rally in New York, she had to storm the stage to scream: "If you won’t fight for me, go back to your bars!" To my cisgender siblings in the LGBTQ family: We love you
When we mythologize the Stonewall Riots of 1969, we often picture cisgender gay men throwing bricks. But the frontline fighters were trans women like (a self-identified drag queen and trans activist) and Sylvia Rivera (a co-founder of STAR, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries). We are not a "controversial" branch of the family tree