Within the larger LGBTQ culture, this has created a "pressure test." Are the LGB factions willing to stand in solidarity when the target is no longer about sex but about gender ?
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The intersection of racism and transphobia creates disproportionate dangers. Black and Latine transgender women face alarming rates of fatal violence, housing insecurity, and employment discrimination compared to other segments of the LGBTQ+ community.
Take the Stonewall Riots of 1969, the Big Bang of gay liberation. The first brick thrown is legendary, but the individuals who fought the hardest against the police were the "street queens"— transgender women, many of them people of color. Marsha P. Johnson, a self-identified drag queen and trans activist, and Sylvia Rivera, a Latina trans woman, were on the front lines. Yet, in the years following Stonewall, as the Gay Liberation Front sought mainstream acceptance, trans bodies were often viewed as "too radical," "too visible," or "embarrassing."
For the broader LGBTQ culture, this internal division is an existential crisis. Polls show that the vast majority of younger queer people support trans inclusion, while older generations sometimes cling to second-wave feminist frameworks. The resolution of this schism will define LGBTQ culture for the next generation.
Transgender women of color experience disproportionately high rates of violence.