Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy the Catalyst for Change

Before I say anything else, please keep your eye out for the upcoming book from this heroine Miss Major Speaks: For Our Friends, Comrades, and Activists Everywhere. I’ll make sure to update this post upon release.

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy was born October 25h 1940 in Chicago, Il. She is a black trans woman activist.

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy
Photo sourced from http://www.tgijp.org/

A pivotal time in Griffin-Gracy’s life, and this nation’s history, were the ‘Stonewall Riots’ which took place from June 28 – July 3, 1969. During the 60s, police raids of non-cisheterosexual communities took place frequently. The very existence of non-cishet people was treated as criminal.

The Stonewall Uprising began as an organic community reaction to a violent police raid on the night of June 28th.

The events of that summer acted as a catalyst, not only for increased community building and organizing, but for the modern-day Pride Parade and trans rights movement.

The movement addressing police violence predates many of us; its been a continuous movement made of many different parts. Griffin-Gracy has played such a critical role in pursuing justice in this nation, specifically through carving out spaces for transgender communities.

She was the original Executive Director for the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project. This organization that aims to “end the human rights abuses committed against Black, Black/Brown trans people inside of California prisons, jails, detention centers and beyond” and provide services legal services for decarceration & re-housing, black trans leadership development, lobbying, and COVID emergency housing.

Her current organizing work is House of GG which is an organization that seeks to “create safe and transformative spaces where members of our community can heal—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—from the trauma arising from generations of transphobia, racism, sexism, poverty, ableism and violence, and nurture them into tomorrow’s leaders”.

This is a leader of courage and tenacity. She’s dedicated her life to this work. We honor you Miss Major Griffin-Gracy.

Receipts (aka sources)