Prior to the 1950s and 60s, the categories of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" were not as rigidly separated as they are today. In underground queer spaces, gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and trans people congregated not out of perfect ideological alignment, but out of sheer survival.
Popular history often credits the 1969 Stonewall Riots—the catalyst for the modern gay rights movement—to gay men and drag queens. However, the vanguard of that uprising was led by trans women of color, such as (a self-identified drag queen and trans activist) and Sylvia Rivera (a Latina trans woman and co-founder of STAR, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries). mature shemale tube