Long before the acronym expanded, transsexuals, drag queens, and gender-nonconforming people were the frontline fighters. The 1969 Stonewall Uprising, widely considered the catalyst for the modern gay liberation movement, was led by figures like Marsha P. Johnson (a self-identified transvestite and gay liberation activist) and Sylvia Rivera (a Latina trans woman and co-founder of STAR—Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries). While history texts often simplify them as "gay" or "drag," their fight was explicitly against the police harassment of gender nonconformity.

These disparities sometimes lead to friction within the culture, as trans activists call for the "LGB" portions of the community to use their relative social capital to protect the most vulnerable members of the "T." The Future of the Community