Transgender and gender-diverse roles have existed across many global cultures for centuries.

From Stonewall to the ballot box, from ballroom floors to bestselling memoirs, trans people are the architects of resistance. To love LGBTQ culture is to love its trans heart. As the late, great Marsha P. Johnson once said when asked what the “P” stood for: “Pay it no mind.”

: An umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

This distinction is the foundation of understanding both the unity and the unique needs of the trans community within LGBTQ+ culture.

: An umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Acknowledging conflict is necessary for growth. The relationship between the trans community and the rest of the LGBTQ spectrum is not always harmonious.

In recent years, a small but vocal minority—including some within the LGB community—has promoted or “LGB without the T” movements. Their arguments (e.g., that trans women are “threats” to female-only spaces) are not rooted in evidence and run counter to decades of LGBTQ+ solidarity.