Embracing Authenticity By Lemo Sekiguchi
Although the term “transgender” didn’t originate until the 1960s, people have always challenged gender conformity. One moment in history people usually go back to is the Stonewall Riots and the queer icons from the 1960s involved in it. Benji Bengtson (they/them), a 15-year-old transgender
youth from the Bay Area describes how there was so much before and after that uprising which has led to where we are today. Bengtson emphasizes people like Marsha P. Johnson “fought and sacrificed their lives for us to have what they are currently attempting to take away.”