October 25, 1946 – October 13, 2025
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (she/they), alongside other major figures like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, played a star role in the gay liberation movement. Here’s a brief introduction to her life story.
Coming of Age as a Black Trans Girl Before the Language Existed
Media would convince folks that transgender identity is new, a novelty that didn’t exist before the 21st century. And teenagers specifically didn’t identify as alternative genders – but Miss Griffin was proof that wasn’t true.
Miss Major came out to her parents as transgender around age 12 or 13 while growing up in the Chicago South Side. After coming out, her parents believed that Griffin-Gracy’s identity was a phase they would later grow out of. Due to the time period, Miss Major identified herself as transsexual – the same term popularized by Christine Jorgensen upon her public return to the United States.
Similar to New York City and San Francisco, Chicago had a thriving underground queer scene that Griffin-Gracy integrated herself into. Between queer balls and chosen family, Miss Major found herself despite the times.
Although Miss Major graduated from high school early, her young adult life was tumultuous. Her identity led to expulsion from two colleges, turning her towards sex work. Following release from psychiatric incarceration, Miss Major moved to New York City to start fresh.
Stonewall Was a Riot – and Miss Major Was There
Griffin-Gracy involved herself in New York’s drag scene and performed as a showgirl – placing her at the perfect time and place for the bubbling revolution for queer rights. The theaters and bars Miss Major frequented were common targets for police raids and mafia blackmail. Griffin-Gracy was present the night that bargoers at the Stonewall Inn were fed up with discrimination.
The Stonewall Riots weren’t the first act of queer rebellion, but they’re credited as the launch point for LGBTQ rights since they encapsulated the moment when communities across the world felt inspired into action. The actions by Miss Major and other queer individuals at Stonewall pushed visible progress. Until then, queer protesting was uniform, quiet, and easily ignored. Militancy took hold, and the first pride was a riot.
However, Miss Major sustained major injuries from Stonewall due to a police officer striking her on the head while in custody. Those injuries caused Griffin-Gracy to be admitted to Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric ward. She was placed in the “queen tank,” a standard practice by mental hospitals at the time to isolate LGBTQIA+ inmates to prevent other patients from being “corrupted.”
Incarceration, State Violence, and the Making of a Prison Abolitionist
Miss Major was released from Bellevue Hospital shortly afterwards, pushing her immediately back into the bubbling revolution. It was also during this time period that she was impacted greatly by anti-transgender violence when her friend was likely murdered by a client.
Frustrated by a lack of action by the authorities, Griffin-Gracy had to come to terms with the reality that transgender people – especially transgender women of color – are not protected by the government. While the Stonewall Riots had been her initial introduction to activism, protecting her transgender sisters from targeted violence formed her political identity.
In 1970, Griffin-Gracy was arrested and convicted for robbing one of her customers. Although she was released on parole after a few months of incarceration, she was sent to Dannemora prison (Clinton Correctional Facility) for wearing makeup to her parole meeting.
Dannemora was a maximum security state prison. Correction officers purposely tried to break Miss Major’s spirit, forcing her into isolation at the facility’s mental ward first. When shaving her hair and eyebrows didn’t break her, officers forced Miss Major to walk through the prison naked. Despite this, Dannemora also put Miss Major in a unique spot – her incarceration led to mentorship under Attica prison uprising leaders like Frank “Big Black” Smith. That mentorship introduced Miss Major to prison reform activism and understanding the prison-industrial complex.
“Mama Major”: Building Trans Community on the West Coast
Griffin-Gracy was released from Dannemora in 1974. After meeting fellow drag performer Deborah Brown in New York City, Miss Major had her first child, Christopher, and moved to California. Although her relationship with Deborah didn’t last, Griffin-Gracy was devoted to raising her son. San Diego provided Miss Major the opportunity to mentor young drag performers, which earned her the nickname “Mama Major.”
Miss Major was directly impacted by the AIDS crisis when her partner Joe Bob passed away from AIDS. After the construction of the San Diego AIDS memorial garden, she moved to San Francisco to work in HIV outreach and joined the Tenderloin AIDS Research Center as a health educator.
Through her work with TARC, Miss Major realized that most unhoused people felt too uncomfortable to seek services from organized facilities. To fill this healthcare gap, Griffin-Gracy started street clinics to provide HIV prevention services.
Miss Major joined the TGI Justice Project in 2004, which is the only US organization that specifically assists transgender people in prisons. Griffin-Gracy’s activism – and life – was intersectional.
Honoring Miss Major Is Honoring the Future
Social justice doesn’t occur in a bubble. Miss Major’s experiences were the product of her identities and her drive to help others.
Although Miss Major passed away due to complications of sepsis on October 13, 2025, her legacy in transgender activism, prison reform, and HIV prevention lives on.
Bibliography & Further Reading
Angela Y. Davis. Are Prisons Obsolete? Seven Stories Press, 2003.
Carter, David. Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution. St. Martin’s Press, 2004.
Duberman, Martin. Stonewall. Dutton, 1993.
Griffin-Gracy, Miss Major. Miss Major! Directed by Annalise Ophelian, Making Waves Films, 2015.
Griffin-Gracy, Miss Major. Miss Major Griffin-Gracy Official Website, missmajor.net.
National Center for Transgender Equality. “LGBTQ People Behind Bars.” NCTE, transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/resources/TransgenderPeopleBehindBars.pdf.
New York Historical Society. “Miss Major Griffin-Gracy.” Women & the American Story, wams.nyhistory.org/end-of-the-twentieth-century/the-information-age/miss-major-griffin-gracy/.
NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. “Stonewall Riots.” NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/stonewall-inn-christopher-park/.
Ophelian, Annalise, director. Major! Making Waves Films, 2015.
Reddit. “Trying to Track Down What the Dannemora Prison Was Like.” r/lgbthistory, www.reddit.com/r/lgbthistory/comments/12ak1s2/trying_to_track_down_what_the_dannemora_prison/.
San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “History of HIV/AIDS in San Francisco.” SFAF, https://www.sfaf.org/resource-library/sfaf-history/.
Stonewall Forever. Stonewall National Monument, National Park Service, https://stonewallforever.org/.
Stryker, Susan. Transgender History. 2nd ed., Seal Press, 2017.
The 19th News. “Transgender Activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy Dies at 78.” The 19th, 13 Oct. 2025, 19thnews.org/2025/10/transgender-activist-miss-major-dies-78/.
Them. “TransVisionaries: How Miss Major Helped Spark the Modern Trans Movement.” Them, www.them.us/story/transvisionaries-miss-major.
Tourmaline, Eric A. Stanley, and Johanna Burton, editors. Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility. MIT Press, 2017.
TGI Justice Project. TGI Justice Project, www.tgijp.org.
World Queerstory. Heroes of Stonewall: Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. 13 June. 2020. https://worldqueerstory.wordpress.com/2020/06/13/heroes-of-stonewall-miss-major-griffin-gracy/.