Figures like (a self-identified drag queen and trans activist) and Sylvia Rivera (a Latina trans woman and founder of STAR – Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) were the ones who threw the bricks and bottles that ignited the riot. Rivera, in particular, spent her life fighting against the "gay establishment" that, once it gained political power, tried to exclude trans people to seem more "respectable."

To understand modern LGBTQ culture is to understand the history, struggles, and triumphs of the transgender community. Yet, this relationship is not without its friction points, erasure, and beautiful, radical evolution. One of the most persistent myths in LGBTQ history is that the modern gay rights movement began with "white cisgender gay men" at the Stonewall Inn in 1969. In reality, the uprising was led by the most marginalized members of the queer community: transgender women, drag queens, and sex workers.

The future of LGBTQ culture is likely to be less about "men-loving-men" and more about . As Gen Z grows up with a fluency in non-binary identities that boomers find bewildering, the lines between "trans" and "gay" will blur further. We may eventually reach a point where the "T" isn't a separate letter but the engine of the whole vehicle.