Ebony magazine is paying tribute to African-American transgendered women who are making an impact in society.

The article in this month’s edition of the magazine is intended to let people know that transgendered people have been making positive contributions to our communities for decades, and have not been given due credit. The transgendered have been fighting for their rights for decades and many have been killed and mistreated for their cause.

From the Huffington Post:

In its March issue, Ebony magazine is paying tribute to an oft-overlooked segment of the African-American population: the transgender community.

“Their presence and contributions are not a recent development, but can be traced back through the centuries,” writes Monica Roberts, citing the case of Lucy Hicks Andersen, a Kentucky native who lived as a woman in Oxnard, California, from 1920 until 1945, when it was discovered that she was biologically male.

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Roberts, who is also transgender, and was part of a team that founded the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) in 1999, also points to the 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria Riots, and the better known 1969 Stonewall Riots, as two historical events in which African-American trans advocates were involved.

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