New York City is home to the largest metropolitantransgender population in the world, estimated at more than 50,000 in 2018, with concentrations inManhattan,Brooklyn, andQueens. The Brooklyn Liberation March, thelargest transgender rights demonstration in history, took place on June 14, 2020 in Brooklyn, focused on supporting Black transgender rights and drew an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 participants.[1][2]
Despite playing a significant role in advocating forLGBTQ equality since the 1969Stonewall Riots and beyond, the transgender community in New York City has frequently been marginalized and abandoned by the city's broadergay,lesbian,bisexual, andqueer communities.[3][4] Since Stonewall, particularly in the 21st century, New York City's transgender community has grown in both size and prominence.[5]
During the Stonewall Riots, when violence erupted, the women and transmasculine people held at theNew York Women's House of Detention down the street joined in by chanting, setting fire to their belongings, and tossing them into the street below.[6]
According toTransgender History bySusan Stryker, the Stonewall Riots had significant effects on transgender rights activism.Sylvia Rivera andMarsha P. Johnson founded theStreet Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in response to what they saw as inadequate representation of trans people within theGay Activists Alliance and theGay Liberation Front. They established politicized versions of "houses," a concept originating from Black and Latino queer communities, to provide shelter for marginalized transgender youth.[7]
In addition to STAR, other organizations such as Transvestites and Transsexuals and theQueens Liberation Front (QLF) were also formed. QLF, founded byLee Brewster and Barbara de Lamere (formerly known as Bunny Eisenhower), participated inChristopher Street Liberation Day marches and advocated for trans visibility and against drag erasure.[7]
Drawing inspiration from Johnson and Rivera's "houses", activistRusty Mae Moore created Transy House, an informal shelter at her rowhouse in Park Slope. Transy House operated from the 1990s through the 2000s. Residents included Sylvia Rivera.[8]
The Okra Project, founded in 2018, is a Brooklyn organization which combatsfood insecurity among Black trans people.
Originally, the U.S.National Park Service website for theStonewall National Monument included references to transgender and queer communities. Following the signing ofExecutive Order 14168 by U.S. PresidentDonald Trump in 2025, which directed federal agencies and federally funded entities to cease promotion ofgender ideology, all mentions of transgender and queer individuals were removed from the website.[9]
On the same day, The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative and theStonewall Inn issued a joint statement criticizing the removal of content, highlighting the role of trans people, particularly non-white trans women, in the Stonewall Riots and the broader LGBTQ+ rights movement. The statement specifically mentioned Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and other transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals as central figures in the historical events.[10]
Efforts have since emerged to restore references to transgender and queer history on the Stonewall National Monument website. Meanwhile, New York State’s official LGBTQ monument on theHudson River shoreline has maintained its inclusion of transgender and queer historical narratives.[11]
Singers, a Brooklyn bar which opened in 2022, is popular among trans patrons.[12] The bar hosted the "Twinks vs. Dolls Olympics", a competition between queer and trans men ("twinks") and trans women ("dolls"). Contests ranged from cigarette-smoking races to wrestling matches in a kiddie pool filled with lubricant.[13]
In 2023, dozens of trans and gender non-conforming people convened for a party onFire Island called the "Doll Invasion".[14] Organizer Fran Tirado expressed her intention to make Fire Island, a popular tourist destination for cisgender gay men, more welcoming to trans people.[15] The event occurred again in 2024.[16][17]
Ball culture is an underground subculture of mostly Black and Latino LGBTQ people, originating in Harlem, New York.[18]Cross dressing balls have existed in the city since the 1800s; theHamilton Lodge Ball in 1869 is the first recorded drag ball in US history.[19][20]
In the 1970s,Crystal LaBeija and her friend Lottie (both Black queens) founded the House of LaBeija, the first house.[21]
The subculture's distinctive system of gender categorization reflects the presence of transgender people. Transgender women are classified as "Femme Queens", and transgender men are generally classified as "Butch", alongside other female-assigned people with a masculine appearance. Some trans men who identify as gay men move into the "Butch Queen" (gay man) category.[22]
Notable transgender members of the New York City ball scene includeVenus Xtravaganza, a femme queen who appeared in the 1990 documentaryParis is Burning, andAngie Xtravaganza, the founder of theHouse of Xtravaganza.
For decades, theChristopher Street Pier has served as an informal gathering place for transgender New Yorkers.[23] Documentaries such as Paris is Burning (1990) andPier Kids (2019) feature footage of the pier and interviews with transgender people who socialize there. In 2000, FIERCE formed as a community organization for LGBT youth in the surrounding waterfront area, producing a documentary that highlighted problems like frequent youth interactions with security personnel and a lack of investment in services for homeless people, which they contrasted with the city's investment in a redevelopment project.[24]
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