Known by most as Miss Major, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is a living icon.
She’s a non-binary transgender activist, former sex worker, formerly incarcerated anti-prison advocate, drag performer, a participant in the Stonewall uprisings, and, as quoted by Janet Mock, “the mother we all deserve.”
For the last 50 years, Miss Major has been a tender yet fierce activist in the Black TGNCIQ community. Her journey as an activist began with her experience as a Black trans-non-binary woman. Born on the Southside of Chicago, Miss Major’s first exposure as a teenager to the Black LGBTQ community was attending drag balls. When she befriended other Black queer and trans folks pushing the boundaries of gender expression and sexuality, she immediately knew she was home. A drag queen named Kitty took Miss Major under her wing, taught her how to apply makeup, and gave her dresses to wear.
Outside of these spaces, Miss Major faced an immense amount of discrimination. After being outed as trans by a roommate who found her dresses, she was expelled from college. Miss Major left Chicago and headed to New York City around 1962. Though there was a burgeoning LGBTQ community in NYC, there was still a ton of discrimination against trans folks. Police were raiding bars, queer and trans folks would often be violently attacked in the streets, and even gay bars would ban entry to Black trans folks.
Miss Major was a sex worker in New York City and described it as a “profitable and pleasurable line of work.” She also got involved in the LGBTQ scene as a drag performer and showgirl. In 1969, Miss Major was among the many queer and trans folks who pushed back against police brutality at the Stonewall uprisings. She still advocates for the many queer and trans people of color who had historically been left out of the stories of Stonewall — like Marsha P. Johnson, who is now credited for “throwing the first brick.”
In 1970, Miss Major was convicted of robbing one of her clients. After getting out on parole, she met with her parole officer wearing light makeup. He then gave her a parole violation for wearing makeup, leading to her serving five years in prison. Miss Major experienced a political awakening while surviving the five-year sentence in Dannemora Prison. While locked up, she was politicized by her fellow prison mates who were survivors of the 1971 Attica uprisings. It was then that she began to deeply understand the intersections of oppression and the urgent needs of her community.
Miss Major became an outreach worker and HIV/AIDS advocate while the government was simultaneously divesting from the LGBTQ community. She continued her drag performances and was affectionately named “Mama Major” as she mentored many trans women of color in the drag scene. She became a health educator at a drop-in center for queer youth. She also started “street clinics” where she’d do outreach to unhoused folks and educate them about HIV prevention. She visited prisons and served as a mentor to queer and trans folks who were doing time in prison and fiercely advocated for trans women of color who had been impacted by incarceration and police brutality. She became the Director of the TGI (Transgender, Gender Variant, Intersex) Justice Project, “the only organization in the U.S. dedicated to assisting transgender people in prisons.” Miss Major also founded the House of GG, “a retreat center for trans and gender nonconforming leaders from the Southern U.S., in Little Rock, Arkansas.”
Miss Major has poured love into our community for decades. She’s used her life experiences to drive forward a mission of caring for our most vulnerable communities. In an interview about her legacy with activist Raquel Willis, Miss Major states, “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.”
Miss Major continues to share the stories of our queer kin who endured so much. Follow her on Instagram at www.instagram.com/missmajor1, and pre-order her upcoming book, Miss Major Speaks!
A documentary released in 2016, MAJOR!, explores the life and campaigns of Miss Major. Watch the trailer at vimeo.com/ondemand/major.
Bio courtesy of the Movement for Black Lives.
