MISS MAJOR GRIFFIN-GRACY: Black Trans Civil Rights Activist

“It’s got to be all of us, or none of us are going to make it.”

TRQ: Miss Major Griffin-Gracy Born October 25, 1940

Black transgender civil rights activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy has fought on behalf of trans women of colour for over 40 years. 

Griffin-Gracy, known as Miss Major or Mama to her community, was born on October 25, 1940, in Chicago, Illinois. Assigned male at birth, she came out as a teen and attended drag balls when Black trans people faced police brutality and exclusion from mainstream society. She sees transgender and genderqueer identity as the target of social pressures and public policies that often end in incarcerating people of color and low income. 

Miss Major enrolled in college but was expelled twice after presenting as female. Afterwards, she lived a life of homelessness, crime, imprisonment, and sex work as she began transitioning through the one way she could afford: black market hormones that were unregulated and potentially unsafe. 

In the 1960s, Griffin-Gracy moved to New York and found a new home within Greenwich Village’s LGBTQ community. She often socialized at the Stonewall Inn in the West Village, where trans women could comfortably gather without prejudice or ostracization. 

Miss Major was at Stonewall with a friend when the police raided on June 27, 1969. Standing up to harassment by law enforcement, Griffin-Gracy was a leader in the resulting Stonewall riots, legendary for being the single most important event that started the gay liberation movement in the United States. During the uprising, the police arrested her and broker her jaw. 

Soon after, Griffin-Gracy served a five-year sentence at Clinton Correctional Facility for burglary. There, she learned from Frank “Big Black” Smith practical strategies for helping her community. She credits her developing views on abolition and Black liberation on her experiences within the prison-industrial complex. 

Miss Major’s activism intensified with the death of her friend Puppy, a trans woman and sex worker. Griffin-Gracy claimed there was evidence of murder, but authorities ruled her death a suicide. In an interview, Griffin-Gracy explained how the loss of Puppy affected her: 

“Puppy’s murder made me aware that we were not safe or untouchable and that if someone does touch us, no one gives a shit. We only have each other… So, I started looking out for myself… whenever we got into a car [we] would write down as much information as possible. We would try (to)… get a guy to walk outside the car so that everyone could see him, so we all knew who he was if she didn’t come back. That’s how it started. Since no one was going to do it for us, we had to do it for ourselves.” 

In 1978, Griffin-Gracy moved to San Diego, California. There she took part in grassroots community organising. Griffin-Gracy worked with trans women who had been incarcerated and homeless. Her son Christopher was also born in 1978. She later adopted three sons who were runaways she met in a park. 

In the 1990s, she moved to San Francisco. She worked with the Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center and other HIV/AIDS organisations. In 2003, she joined the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP) first as a staff organizer and then as Executive Director. MAJOR!, a documentary film which looks at Miss Major’s life and her over 40 years of black, trans advocacy was released in 2016. 

Miss Major now lives in Little Rock, Arkansas. She founded the House of GG’s as a transgender haven. On January 9, 2021, Griffin-Gracy and her trans male partner Beck Witt gave birth to their son Asiah Wittenstein Major. 

Miss Major has described the impact she would like to have on the world: 

“I would want my legacy to be: If it ain’t right, fucking fix it, whatever it takes. I’d want to be remembered for trying to do the right thing and care for all people. We’re all part of one another. I would want people to understand who we are as human beings. I want us to look at the similarities more than the differences.” 

About the Authors

Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.

Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore. 

Sources:

LGBTQ Religious Archives

SF Online

Stand With Trans

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