Miss Major, Trans Icon, Dies
The legendary activist who spent her life making a difference had entered hospice care last week
October 13, 2025
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, the famous and beloved Black trans activist of more than 50 years, has died at 78 (some reports say 84), less than a week after entering hospice care.
Her death was announced by her organization, which consoled her admirers by saying she died “in the comfort of her home and surrounded by loved ones in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her enduring legacy is a testament to her resilience, activism, and dedication to creating safe spaces for Black trans communities and all trans people — we are eternally grateful for Miss Major’s life, her contributions and how deeply she poured into those she loved.”
It went on to note she devoted her life to fighting for “trans, gender-nonconforming, and LGB community — especially for Black trans women, trans women of color and those who have survived incarceration and police brutality. Major’s fierce commitment and intersectional approach to justice brought her to care directly for people with HIV/AIDS in New York in the early 1980s, and later to drive San Francisco’s first mobile needle exchange. As director of the TGI Justice Project, she’d return to prisons as a mentor to her ‘gurls’ inside.”
Born October 25, 1946, she had run-ins with the law over wearing female clothing, having been assigned male at birth. By 1962, she had moved from Minnesota to NYC, where she worked in drag and even in the Apollo’s Jewel Box Revue.
She became a sex worker — one who survived stints in Dannemora and Bellevue (its notorious “queen tank”) — before becoming a veteran of Stonewall.
Her journey to activism was led by her personal experiences, and an organic desire to help others so they could avoid the toxicity and the day-to-day challenges that defined her own early life.
She was widely acknowledged as a strong mentor, and was a major source of support for people during the AIDS crisis in the ‘80s. Having lost her partner Joe-Bob to the disease, she created a home health care agency called Angels of Care to help combat the desperation so many felt before almost any institutions took the plague seriously.
She had been the first Executive Director for the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP) until retiring in 2015, and founded House of gg, described as “a healing space and community center for transgender people” in Little Rock, Arkansas.
She was also the producer of the acclaimed docuseries Trans in Trumpland (2021), which reminds us how annoying it is that this trans person died while there still is a Trumpland.
In 2023, she co-authored the well-received memoir Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary (2023) with Sad Francisco podcaster Toshio Meronek, and in 2024 she was an NYC Pride March grand marshal.
Also in 2024, Major — who was not a typical Democrat — endorsed Kamala Harris for president and urged voters to reject Donald Trump.
She is survived by her sons Christopher, Asaiah and Jonathon; her partner Beck Witt; her countless daughters and sisters in the community; and her many admirers.
The Human Rights Campaign’s President Kelley Robinson said of her passing:
“All of us at HRC feel a profound sense of loss at the passing of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. She held many roles throughout her life: prison reform and civil rights activist, HIV outreach and prevention educator, executive director, executive producer. To many, though, she was best known as ‘Mom’ — as she mentored and looked over so many younger trans women in the community. A pillar in our community, Miss Major’s lifetime of challenging work fundamentally changed and improved the lives of so many, especially Black transgender women. From Stonewall to her HIV activism to her support of so many transgender and gender nonconforming folks in the South, her legacy is powerful and lasting. We owe her a debt that can never be repaid.”