By: Kayla Campion
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is one of the most influential trans activists in the world. For decades, she has worked tirelessly to advocate on the behalf of marginalized LGBTQ+ people of color, particularly those in prison and on the streets, living in unimaginable conditions. The award-winning documentary film MAJOR! provides an in-depth look into Miss Major’s life, showcasing her courage, resilience, and compassion through stories about her childhood in the South Side of Chicago, experience of the Stonewall Riots, and her continued activism for liberation and social justice for Black and trans people with the Transgender Varient and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP). For the purpose of this project, this film will be used to demonstrate the clear parallels between Miss Major’s life and the evolution of trans rights as chronicled by scholars Williams and Stryker.
Sweet but sad music fills the ears of the viewer as the film MAJOR! opens; the sincere, awestruck voices of trans women affirming their love for Major echoes this sound. The word transgender can be traced back to heterosexual cross-dresser Virginia Prince in 1969. It was used as a means to “name the specific behavior of living full time in a chosen social gender role different from that typically associated with birth assigned sex” (Williams, 232). Of course, at this time, transgender was not well understood or accepted, as both a term and state of being. Major Griffin-Gracy is credited with sparking the trans’ rights movement in the late 1960s and 1970s, when she passionately and relentlessly attacked the criminal justice system for its abuse against incarcerated transgender women (particularly women of color). Though she has officially retired, Major continues to advocate for the rights of these women, keeping a close watch on TGIJP and building a safe retreat house for members of the trans community. Stories of Major’s life and compassionate actions toward her adopted “daughters,” who affectionately call her “mama,” are intertwined throughout the MAJOR! documentary.
One of the first most noticeable elements of the film is not just the warm disposition of Major’s friends, but the sheer number. She is surrounded, constantly, by folks of various races and genders, young and old alike. Major does not appear to concern herself with labels, but responds to most names, whether that be “mama,” “dad,” “he,” or “she” (00:01:18-00:01:30). The disregard she has for strict classifications of identities and genders is likely the reason she finds herself with no lack of companions: people, particularly marginalized ones who have suffered the effects of abuse and discrimination, long for love and acceptance. And Major has an abundance of those things to give (00:26:50-00:29:15). This is particularly significant given that it is not just privileged, hetero, cis, white people that display their bias, but sometimes other members of the LGBTQ+ community. In her piece “(De) Subjugated Knowledges: An Introduction to Transgender Studies,” Susan Stryker recalls a 1995 conference she attended where a gay, former Stonewall Riot protester claimed that transgendered people were “profoundly psychopathological” and “believed in oppressive gender stereotypes and held reactionary political views…”(1). Major continues to challenge this type of in-group oppression with her demonstration of radical acceptance for others: she was present at the 1969 Stonewall Riots (00:36:55-38:10). Both then and now, her message is clear: if advocacy is not intersectional, it is not advocacy. Today, her work with TGIJP is particularly targeted toward trans women of color, who are especially vulnerable to biases and violence. This intersection between race and gender surely requires some feminists to re-examine, or perhaps examine for the first time, some of their “exclusionary assumptions” (Stryker, 7).
The MAJOR! documentary does not just inform viewers on the facts of Major’s life, it acts as a resource for transgender people. Major has witnessed and experienced some of the worst acts of abuse and violence imaginable, she has been rejected and shamed, not just by peers and colleagues, but by family as well. Through it all, she has persevered, and not only survived, but made it so that others could survive and thrive as well. Civil rights advocates applaud her courage and strength, and her son and former partner gush over the love and support she gives (00:56:15-00:58:30). The film ends with transgender women fiercely proclaiming Major’s motto: “I’m still f*cking here!” (01:24:20-01:26:00).
Works Cited
6C8714156-130822-Miss-Mayor-01.Jpg (JPEG Image, 1500 × 1012 Pixels) – Scaled (64%). https://media1.s-nbcnews.com/i/streams/2013/August/130823/6C8714156-130822-miss-mayor-01.jpg. Accessed 4 Dec. 2018.
Ophelian, Annalise. “MAJOR!” Amazon Prime, 2012, https://www.amazon.com/Major-Miss-Griffin-Gracy/dp/B079HCVBQ2.
Stryker, Susan. “(De)Subjugated Knowledges : An Introduction to Transgender Studies.” The Reader-Reader, 31 July 2010, readersquared.wordpress.com/2010/07/31/tsr-desubjugated-knowledges/.
Williams, Cristan. “Transgender.” Transgender Studies Quarterly, pp. 232-234.