The modern LGBTQ rights movement began to take shape in the mid-20th century, with the Stonewall riots in 1969 serving as a pivotal moment. The riots, which were sparked by a police raid on a gay bar in New York City, marked a turning point in the fight for LGBTQ rights. The 1970s and 1980s saw the rise of LGBTQ activism, with organizations like the Gay Liberation Front and the Human Rights Campaign emerging to advocate for LGBTQ rights.

To be a member of the LGBTQ community is to understand that your liberation is bound up with everyone else's. You cannot fight for the right to love who you love if you deny someone else’s right to be who they are.

The future of the transgender community is the future of LGBTQ culture: .

In the aftermath, as the Gay Liberation Front formed, Rivera and Johnson founded . STAR was the first organization in the US led by trans women to house homeless LGBTQ youth. This act of mutual aid cemented a core tenet of LGBTQ culture: We take care of our own. The refusal of mainstream gay organizations in the 1970s to include gender identity in the first federal gay rights bills—often dropping the "T" for political convenience—echoes painfully today. Yet, the trans community never left.

While same-sex marriage is broadly accepted in the West, legislation targeting trans youth (bans on sports participation, bans on puberty blockers, bathroom restrictions) has become the culture war of the decade. This has forced the larger LGBTQ culture to make a choice: