California's first openly trans trial lawyer fights for equality for all

TRANS ACTIVISM MOVES AHEAD ​1966: A riot at Compton’s Cafeteria in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco marked the beginning of transgender activism. The riot took place in response to

law enforcement harassment of drag queens and trans and gay people who were in the restaurant. It’s one of the first reported instances of transgender people fighting against oppressive

actions. ​ 1969: The Stonewall uprising, a struggle between members of the New York City queer community and cops following a raid on the famous bar kicks off the modern LGBTQ+ Liberation

Movement.​​ 1970: Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, two transgender sex workers, started Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, and then created STAR House, in New York City, which

worked to provide housing for street queer and trans youth.​​ 1975: Minneapolis protects transgender people with a nondiscrimination ordinance prohibiting employment discrimination and equal

access to public accommodations — the first such law in the country.​ 1993: Minnesota extends the nondiscrimination law to the entire state.​​ 2005: California bars medical insurance

companies from denying transgender people health care with the Insurance Gender Nondiscrimination Act. ​​ 2008: Stu Rasmussen, of Silverton, Oregon, is elected the nation’s first openly

transgender mayor.​​ 2014: Obama Administration rules that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act applies to transgender people, affording federal nondiscrimination protections to the

transgender community. ​​ The Obama Administration also rules that Medicare must cover gender-confirmation surgeries. ​​ 2020: The Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, decision by the U.S.

Supreme Court affirms that Title VII protects transgender people from being fired from their place of work for transitioning. ​​ 2021: Rachel Levine became the first openly transgender

person confirmed by the U.S. Senate to a federal post and was sworn in as the assistant secretary of health. The same year, Levine became the first openly transgender four-star officer

across the country’s eight uniformed services. ​ ​