"In these times of intensified fascism - marked by racist anti-trans violence and further abandonment by liberal politicians - it's harder to know where to find anything other than despair without her here. A freedom fighter and glamour gurl until the end, Major is probably most famous for being a survivor of the 1969 anti-police uprising at New York's Stonewall Inn. However, for those fortunate enough to inhabit her orbit, she's a mother and mentor who held on to us when others threw us out."
"In the 1970s she spent three years upstate in Dannemora prison, where she was politicized by Frank "Big Black" Smith, who was transferred there after he helped organize the 1971 uprising at Attica. His "all of us or none" mentality stayed with her, and in her public speeches she often wove in remarks about international struggles like Palestinian liberation and the demand for justice for Jennifer Laude, a Filipina sex worker murdered by a U.S. marine."
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy was a Stonewall survivor, freedom fighter, and steadfast mentor to transgender and gender-expansive people. She began transitioning in Chicago, obtaining hormones through informal networks, then moved to New York to perform with and follow the Jewel Box Revue while surviving sex work, unstable housing, hospital stays, and Rikers. She served three years in Dannemora prison, where Frank Big Black Smith politicized her with an all of us or none mentality. She linked local struggles to international causes such as Palestinian liberation and justice for Jennifer Laude, and she advocated for decriminalizing sex work and excluding police from Pride and similar spaces.
Read at Truthout
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