This article was originally published by MNopedia on June 27, 2025.

In December of 1975, the Minneapolis City Council passed the first non-discrimination protections covering trans and gender-non-conforming people in American history. Approved with little fanfare as a slight change to the city’s existing gay rights ordinance, it reflected collaboration among moderate and radical gay rights activists, transsexual women, and legislators across the political spectrum.

Beginning in the mid-to-late 1960s, Minneapolis became a hotbed of gay liberation and lesbian feminist organizing, as well as a center of trans life in the Upper Midwest. The University of Minnesota’s gender clinic brought transsexual women to the city and increased their visibility; gay and lesbian activists founded groups li

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