Figures like , a self-identified drag queen and trans activist, and Sylvia Rivera , a Latina transgender woman, were on the front lines of the riots. Rivera, co-founder of STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), spent her life fighting for the most marginalized: trans sex workers, homeless youth, and gender outlaws. For years, mainstream gay and lesbian organizations pushed them aside, prioritizing more "palatable" narratives of middle-class, cisgender (non-trans) respectability.