Transgenderism in New York City

New York City is home to the largest transgender population in the world, estimated at more than 50,000 in 2018, concentrated in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens; however, until the June 1969 Stonewall riots, this community had felt marginalized and neglected by the gay community.^[1][2] Brooklyn Liberation March, the largest transgender-rights demonstration in LGBT history, took place on June 14, 2020, stretching from Grand Army Plaza to Fort Greene, Brooklyn, focused on supporting Black transgender lives, drawing an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 participants.^[3][4]

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Despite playing a significant role in fighting for LGBTQ equality during the period of the 1969 Stonewall Riots and thereafter,^[2] the transgender community in New York City had previously felt marginalized and neglected by the gay community.^[2] Since then, and especially during the 21st century, New York City's transgender community has grown in size and prominence,^[5]

When the violence broke out during the Stonewall Riots , the women and transmasculine people being held down the street at The Women's House of Detention joined in by chanting, setting fire to their belongings and tossing them into the street below. The historian Hugh Ryan says, "When I would talk to people about Stonewall, they would tell me, that night on Stonewall, we looked to the prison because we saw the women rioting and chanting, 'Gay rights, gay rights, gay rights.'"^[6]