Whether you’re an ally looking to learn or a member of the community celebrating your roots, understanding the vibrant world of transgender and LGBTQ+ culture is all about embracing authenticity. Here’s a quick look at the heartbeat of this community: 🏳️‍⚧️ The T in LGBTQ+: Identity & Resilience

For Rivera, the mainstream gay movement of the 1970s was often a betrayal. She watched as affluent, white gay men distanced themselves from the "unpalatable" elements of their community—the drag queens, the street hustlers, the visibly trans people. In a famous 1973 speech at a gay rights rally in New York, she screamed, “You all tell me, ‘Go away! We don’t want you anymore!’… I have been beaten. I have had my nose broken. I have been thrown in jail. I have lost my job. I have lost my apartment for gay liberation.”