LGBTQ culture is known for its internal jargon and sub-identities, but the transgender community is particularly diverse. To understand the culture, one must break down the acronym:

The narrative that LGBTQ culture began with the 1969 Stonewall Uprising is an oversimplification, but it remains a useful focal point for understanding transgender erasure. Mainstream history often credits gay men and cisgender lesbians as the sole heroes of that night. However, accounts from participants like Stormé DeLarverie (a butch lesbian of mixed race) and trans activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera tell a different story.

While the LGBTQ community as a whole faces discrimination, the transgender community experiences distinct and often more severe forms of marginalization. Understanding these challenges is key to being an authentic ally.

Access to gender-affirming care—which major medical associations deem necessary and life-saving—faces severe legislative restrictions globally.

Three years before Stonewall, in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, a riot broke out at Compton’s Cafeteria. The target was police harassment of queer and transgender people, specifically the "street queens" (an early term for trans women and effeminate gay men). When a police officer manhandled a trans woman, she threw her coffee in his face. The ensuing street battle was one of the first recorded acts of transgender resistance in US history.