Transgender people have long faced discrimination in employment, marriage, medical care and other areas, and are far more likely to experience homelessness, unemployment and mental illness than people whose gender identity matches the gender they were assigned at birth.
The transgender community’s fight for rights in the United States took shape in the 1960s, from a protest at a San Francisco diner popular with transgender women to confrontations with the police at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, a milestone in the gay rights movement. Sylvia Rivera, a trans activist and Stonewall veteran, demanded that transgender people be recognized as part of the gay rights movement.
Today, lawmakers across the country have introduced anti-trans legislation, seeking to bar transgender students from participating in sports and limiting access by minors to gender-affirming medical care. The movement that began nearly half a century ago still faces many obstacles.