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According to the 2020 United States Census, approximately 1.4 million people identify as transgender, representing about 0.4% of the total US population. The majority of transgender individuals are between 25 and 44 years old, with a slightly higher proportion identifying as female (53%). Transgender people are more likely to be people of color, with 44% identifying as Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, or Asian.

The transgender community has always been the engine of —a subset of LGBTQ culture originating in Harlem that includes "voguing" and "walking categories." Terms like "shade," "reading," "slay," and "realness" originated in trans and queer ballroom scenes before being appropriated by mainstream pop culture (thanks to shows like RuPaul's Drag Race ).

Despite significant progress, the transgender community and LGBTQ+ culture face ongoing challenges that require a unified response.

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Popular history often credits gay men and cisgender lesbians for sparking the modern LGBTQ rights movement at the Stonewall Inn in 1969. A more accurate, intersectional view places transgender women, gender non-conforming people, and drag queens—specifically figures like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera—at the very front lines.

The fight for basic administrative dignity continues, including the right to update gender markers on birth certificates, passports, and driver's licenses, as well as the recognition of non-binary identities via "X" markers.

: A person's transgender identity is private. Never share this information without their explicit permission. 3. LGBTQ+ Cultural Elements Cultural Competence in the Care of LGBTQ Patients - NCBI

The transgender community has dragged the rest of LGBTQ culture out of a rigid gender binary.

Later, during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, the transgender community—particularly trans women who engaged in survival sex work—were decimated alongside gay men. Yet, when funding and memorials arrived, trans victims were often omitted. The shared trauma of the AIDS epidemic forged a biological and political bond between the cisgender gay community and the transgender community that cannot be erased. They shared hospital wards, funeral pyres, and the fury of a government that let them die.

: Identity is one's internal sense of being male, female, or another gender. Expression is how one presents that gender publicly through clothing, behavior, and name.