Miss Major remembered: LGBTQ+ rights advocates honor her legacy

"Griffin-Gracy, born in Chicago, spoke about her move to NYC in her youth on the LGBTQ&A podcast in 2021. "The trans community was everywhere," she reflected, "I went immediately to 42nd Street. Everybody went to 42nd Street: trans girls, everybody. Finding them was not a problem.... I found an apartment that I moved into. It was six floors of nothing but trans girls. It was fabulous. There were so many of us that it was a full life.""

"She navigated New York's anti-cross-dressing laws, which remained on the books well into the 21st century, and was at Stonewall in June 1969 when the riots began. In the podcast interview, she mentioned an early moment of violence as the infamous moments unfolded. "So I spit in some guy's face, and he knocked me out," she said. "Other than that, I don't remember anything." Greg Doherty/Getty Images"

"After a robbery arrest, she spent several years in men's prisons and mental hospitals, where she was subjected to ill treatment. Yet she emerged with grit and determination to uplift her trans community, becoming an advocate for the rights of trans incarcerated individuals. In 2005, she joined the Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project, an organization dedicated to providing legal services for trans, gender-variant, and gender-nonconforming people, and she became its first executive director, a post she held from 2010 to 2015."

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy died on October 13 at age 78 after time in hospice care. She spent more than five decades fighting for transgender equality across a U.S. landscape that remained hostile to queer rights. Born in Chicago, she moved to New York City in youth and found a vibrant trans community centered on 42nd Street. She witnessed Stonewall in June 1969 and endured violence and arrests, including years spent in men's prisons and mental hospitals where she suffered mistreatment. She emerged as an advocate for incarcerated trans people, joined the Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project in 2005, served as its executive director, and founded the House of gg in 2019.

Read at Advocate.com