Transgender and gender non-conforming people have long navigated Western and global cultures, often finding refuge in the arts—such as Shakespearean theater, Japanese Kabuki, and Chinese opera—where cross-gender performance was a high-status necessity. However, modern transgender activism emerged more visibly in the mid-20th century as a response to targeted police harassment.
The popular narrative often credits the 1969 Stonewall Uprising—led by trans icons like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera—as the birth of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. While cisgender gay men and lesbians were the public face of the movement in the 1970s and 80s, transgender people, particularly trans women of color, were the foot soldiers and the catalysts.