Trans History Quotes

“The only reason they tolerated the transgender community in some of these movements was because we were gung-ho, we were front liners. We didn’t take no shit from nobody. We had nothing to lose. You all had rights. We had nothing to lose. I’ll be the first one to step on any organization, any
politician’s toes if I have to, to get the rights for my community.”
― Sylvia Rivera, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR): Survival, Revolt, and Queer Antagonist Struggle

“The mind of the transsexual cannot be changed”
― Lou Sullivan, From Female to Male: The Life of Jack Bee Garland

“Jack struggled throughout his life to maintain his male identity, yet in a final symbol of rejection by family and society, and a final assault upon his body, this little old gray-haired man was buried in a woman’s white satin dress”
― Lou Sullivan, From Female to Male: The Life of Jack Bee Garland

“You’re not a woman!” I say, “I don’t know what I
am if I’m not a woman.”
― Marsha P. Johnson, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR): Survival, Revolt, and Queer Antagonist Struggle

“I’m not even in the back of the bus. My community is being pulled by a rope around our neck by the bumper of the damn bus that stays in the front. Gay liberation but transgender nothing!”
― Sylvia Rivera, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR): Survival, Revolt, and Queer Antagonist Struggle

“They have been brainwashed by this fucked up system that has condemened us and by doctors that call us a disease and a bunch
of freaks. Our family and friends have also condemned us because of their lack
of true knowledge.”
― Sylvia Rivera, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR): Survival, Revolt, and Queer Antagonist Struggle