This tension—between mainstream LGB acceptance and radical trans/gender-nonconforming existence—has defined the internal politics of the culture ever since.

The relationship between the transgender community and LGBTQ culture is the relationship between the root and the flower. The root is often unseen, underground, and bears the harshest conditions of soil and pressure. The flower may get the sunlight and the admiration, but it cannot survive if the root is cut.

For decades, the LGBTQ movement has been symbolized by a rainbow. But within that spectrum of colors lies a specific, vibrant, and increasingly visible thread: the story of the transgender community. To understand modern LGBTQ culture, one must look beyond the parades and the flags to the activists, artists, and everyday people who have fundamentally reshaped what it means to fight for queer liberation.