# Transgender culture of New York City

New York City has the largest metropolitan transgender population in the world, estimated at more than 50,000 in 2018, with concentrations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. The Brooklyn Liberation March, the largest transgender rights demonstration in history, took place on June 14, 2020 in Brooklyn, focused on supporting Black transgender rights and drew an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 participants.
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Despite playing a significant role in advocating for LGBTQ equality since the 1969 Stonewall Riots and beyond, the transgender community in New York City has frequently been marginalized and abandoned by the city's broader gay and lesbian communities. Since Stonewall, particularly in the 21st century, New York City's transgender community has grown in both size and prominence.

## History
### 1960s and 70s

During the Stonewall Riots, when violence erupted, the women and transmasculine people held at the New York Women's House of Detention down the street joined in by chanting, setting fire to their belongings, and tossing them into the street below.
According to Transgender History by Susan Stryker, the Stonewall Riots had significant effects on transgender rights activism. Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in response to what they saw as inadequate representation of trans people within the Gay Activists Alliance and the Gay Liberation Front. They established politicized versions of "houses," a concept originating from Black and Latino queer communities, to provide shelter for marginalized transgender youth.
In addition to STAR, other organizations such as Transvestites and Transsexuals and the Queens Liberation Front (QLF) were also formed. QLF, founded by Lee Brewster and Barbara de Lamere (formerly known as Bunny Eisenhower), participated in Christopher Street Liberation Day marches and advocated for trans visibility and against drag erasure.

### 2020s

Originally, the U.S. National Park Service website for the Stonewall National Monument included references to transgender and queer communities. Following the signing of Executive Order 14168 by U.S. President Donald Trump in 2025, which directed federal agencies and federally funded entities to cease promotion of gender ideology, all mentions of transgender and queer individuals were removed from the website.
On the same day, The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative and the Stonewall Inn issued a joint statement criticizing the removal of content, highlighting the role of trans people, particularly non-white trans women, in the Stonewall Riots and the broader LGBTQ+ rights movement. The statement specifically mentioned Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and other transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals as central figures in the historical events.
Efforts have since emerged to restore references to transgender and queer history on the Stonewall National Monument website. Meanwhile, New York State’s official LGBTQ monument on the Hudson River shoreline has maintained its inclusion of transgender and queer historical narratives.

## Notable figures

* Notable figures of the trans community in New York City
* Laverne Cox
* Yasmine Petty
* Aaron Rose Philip
* Teddy Quinlivan
* Geena Rocero
* Michaela Jaé Rodriguez
* Abby Stein