Miss Major Griffin-Gracy Oral History

In this interview, Miss Major talks about the culture of transwomen sex workers in New York City and Chicago during the 1960's through 1980's as well as her care-work and advocacy during the rise of the AIDs epidemic, particularly in California. She illustrates her experiences in navigating bathhouse culture, sex work in 1960's New York City and rudimentary hormone and surgery access. Becoming a parent and mentor, Miss Major found ways to maintain herself and family through truck driving and as a community resource through organizations like Tenderloin AIDs Resource Project, Angels for Care, Trans Gender, Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project and her most recent creation; Griffin Gracy Historical Retreat and Resource Center. (Summary by Kirsten Adorian.)

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Item Information:

Identifier: q811kk017
Collection: Oral Histories with People of Color
Institution: NYC Trans Oral History Project
Creator(s): Griffin-Gracy, Major
Lewis, AJ
Contributor(s): Adorian, Kirsten
Publisher: New York Public Library
Date Created: Dec. 16, 2017
Dates Covered: 1950 to 2017
Genre: Oral Histories
Subject(s): Angels for Care
Christine Jorgensen
Griffin Gracy Historical Retreat and Resource Center
Harry Benjamin
Major Griffin-Gracy
Marsha P. Johnson
Miss Major
Sylvia Rivera
Tenderloin AIDs Resource Project
Trans Gender, Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project
Places: California > San Francisco County > San Francisco
New York
Illinois > Cook County > City of Chicago > Chicago
California
Topic(s): Care
Clothing
Crossdressing
Drag queens
Ethnic groups
Families
Gender realignment surgery
HIV/AIDS
Hormones
Law
Legal aid
LGBTQ+ sex workers
Organisations
Police
Prisons
Stigmatisation
Transgender people
Transgender prostitution
Transitioning (Gender)
Resource Type: Audio
Digital Format: Duration: 2 hours 9 minutes 59 seconds
Language: English
Rights: Copyright undetermined
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