How the Fight Against Police Brutality Helped Ignite the LGBTQ-Rights Movement

On June 14, an estimated 15,000 people, most of them wearing white, marched through Brooklyn, N.Y., for Black trans lives. While the event was in some ways unique, it was also part of a history that goes back to the start of the modern movement for LGBTQ rights in the United States.

For writer and activist Raquel Willis, the day was magnetic. “I had a brief moment before I spoke where I was looking out over the crowd, and I never imagined seeing that many people gathering specifically for…