Trans Activism Is 'Too New'? Bull Feces

One of the memes it's time to blow up that is weakly being spun in the GL community lately is that trans activism and the fight for trans civil rights is a 'new' concept.  

Oh really?

How do you explain the 1965 Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit In, the 1966 Compton's Cafeteria Riot,  Lady Java's protests that ended up taking down Rule Number 9 in 1967, the Stonewall Riots, Sylvia Rivera, Phyllis Frye, Miss Major, Alexander John Goodrum, the long list of legal cases such as MT vs JT, ...Well,you get the drift..

Trans activism around trans rights issues predates Stonewall. 

I also seem to recall making some trips to Washington DC in 1998 and 1999 with a few friends from around the country to lobby for ENDA and hate crimes law passage, being part of a group that founded NTAC during and in the wake of the 1999 DC trip and bouncing up to Hollywood for Ugly People on lobbying trips as recently as 2007 and 2009

Oh yeah, how did I forget that HRC Washington dinner protest that I and a few more of my trans friends and allies took part in as well that triggered a series of HRC dinner protests around the country in the wake of our 2007 pissivity over being cut out of ENDA?

And that's before I begin talking about some of the fights that international transpeople have waged such as April Ashley, Coccinelle, Sass Rogando Sasot,  Leona Lo, Caroline 'Tula' Cossey, Victor Mukasa, Audrey Mbuaga or the current international battles being waged by trans people in their various nations for respect, dignity and their human rights.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that some of us have given our lives for this cause as well such as Honduras' Cynthia Nicole Moreno and countless others.

As I write this, the battle continues on a wide variety of fronts around the world in terms of getting civil rights coverage and fighting for our marriage rights on a city by city, state by state and a country by country basis.

We fight tooth and nail for the right to simply live our lives with facing violence, bullying, police and other harassment, and outright discrimination.

It's not only beyond insulting, it's whitewashing of trans history and a baldfaced lie for GL people to state that trans activism is 'too new'.