Transgender people have existed across cultures for millennia—from the in South Asia to the Two-Spirit people of North America. In the modern Western context, the movement evolved from underground social clubs into radical activism: Marsha P. Johnson
The transgender community has been an integral, though often marginalized, foundation of the broader LGBTQ+ movement for over a century. While the acronym "LGBTQ+" reflects a modern unified political front, transgender people have historically been at the forefront of the fight for civil rights, even as they faced exclusion from within the movement they helped build.