As we continue through Pride month I find myself thinking less about the celebrations and more about the people. I think about the individuals who organized, resisted, cared for one another, and built community when the world told them they didn’t belong. Pride exists because of them.
When I think about the history of Pride, I think about something much bigger than any single moment in time. The reality is that transgender, nonbinary, and queer people are not a trend or a recent conversation. We have always existed across cultures, across generations, and we always will be here.
To truly understand Pride Month, we have to reflect back on the moments of resistance and LGBTQ+ mutual aid that shaped our history.
The History of Pride Before Stonewall
Before the Stonewall Uprising, LGBTQ+ people faced routine discrimination, police harassment, housing instability, and violence. Our communities survived because we took care of one another. What we call mutual aid today was simply a way of life. People shared resources, opened their homes, raised money, provided meals, and protected one another because no one else would.
- The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot (1966): Three years before Stonewall, trans women, drag queens, and queer youth fought back against police harassment in San Francisco. Their resistance helped spark some of the earliest organized efforts to create trans-specific healthcare, housing, and advocacy services.
- Hidden Black Trans History: Countless acts of resistance occurred long before 1969. Leaders like Frances Thompson, a Black trans woman, became the first known trans woman to testify before the U.S. Congress after surviving the Memphis Massacre of 1866. Lucy Hicks Anderson lived openly and authentically decades before the word “transgender” entered common use.
The Stonewall Riot and the Modern LGBTQ+ Movement
Then came June of 1969. When police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York City, members of the community decided they had enough. What followed were days of protest and resistance that ignited the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
Among those connected to the legacy of Stonewall are Black and Latine trans leaders whose names continue to inspire generations of activists today:
- Marsha P. Johnson: A Black trans activist and community organizer who, alongside Sylvia Rivera (a Latina trans activist), created STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries). STAR was dedicated to supporting unhoused queer and trans youth. At a time when mainstream politics focused on recognition, Marsha and Sylvia focused on survival—providing food, housing, and support.
- Stormé DeLarverie: A Black lesbian activist, performer, and drag king whose resistance helped spark the Stonewall Uprising. She spent subsequent decades protecting and supporting LGBTQ+ people throughout New York City.
- Miss Major Griffin-Gracy: A Black trans elder and Stonewall veteran who has spent decades advocating for incarcerated trans women and transgender people of color.
These individuals did more than make history, they cared for people. They built community and fought for a future they might never fully experience themselves.
Carrying the Legacy Forward: Free Gender-Affirming Care
To me, Pride is a reminder that our movement has always been built by ordinary people doing extraordinary things for one another.
As a Black trans-led organization, The Queer Trans Project exists to carry that exact legacy forward. The work we do today is rooted in the same values of mutual aid and community care that have sustained us for generations.
Our Free Services & Resources
To support our community’s urgent needs, we provide life-saving resources directly to those who need them most:
- Free Gender-Affirming Items: Shipping chest binders, prosthetics, packing underwear, shapewear, bras, and cosmetics safely and discreetly.
- Flight Assistance: Connecting transgener and nonbinary individuals to gender affirming care on commercial/private flights, in partnership with Elevated Access.
Help Us Make History: Support Trans and Nonbinary People
Pride is not just a celebration of who we are; it is an action. Their stories deserve to be remembered, their work deserves to be honored, and their legacy deserves to live on through all of us.
We are currently shipping record-breaking numbers of gender-affirming care packages to trans and nonbinary people throughout the country, but we cannot do it alone.
Be a part of history and help us sustain this vital lifeline.