Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a legendary activist who spent decades fighting for incarcerated transgender people in San Francisco and beyond, has died. She was 78 years old.

Born in Chicago, Miss Major spent her young adulthood in New York City, where she participated in the 1969 riots against police brutality at Stonewall Inn, a flashpoint that kicked off the modern-day LGBTQ+ rights movement. After surviving sex work and incarceration at men’s prisons, Miss Major became a tireless advocate for trans women living on the margins due to family, job and housing discrimination.

During the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, as the government looked the other way, Miss Major helped organize hospice care and support systems for trans and gay people dying from the disease, including at the Tenderlo

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