The popular narrative often places the Stonewall Riots of 1969 as the "birth" of the modern gay rights movement. While this is partially true, the mainstream retelling often scrubs a crucial detail from the record: the vanguard of that uprising was led by transgender women of color.
During the assimilationist pushes of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, mainstream gay rights organizations occasionally sidelined or explicitly excluded transgender individuals. The goal was often to appear more palatable to conservative lawmakers, a strategy that left trans people vulnerable and erased their contributions to the movement.