One of the biggest pieces of information that interested me and surprised me while watching MAJOR! was how a lot of the women believed that if they had been given the love and support that they wanted form their parents, they would not have ended up living on the streets. This information came after the printed fact that “one in five transgender respondents experienced homelessness at some point in their lives as the result of discrimination or family rejection” (MAJOR! 24:43). Tumeka Godwin recounted the story of how she was kicked out of the house when she was 18 and was not allowed to come back unless she presented herself as a man to the public. She explicitly states that if her parents had loved her the way she was, she probably would not have done the nefarious things that she described. The lack of love and support of family members, which is often thought to be unconditional, is clearly a big problem in the trans community.
The film left we wondering about how many other untold stories existed out there that we would never be able to hear about, simply because they were the stories of less privileged people. At this point in the course, we have heard about Miss Major, Marsha Johnson, and Silvia Rivera. For me, these have all been names that I had not heard about before this course, despite having some knowledge about LGBTQ+ history in the United States. These stories did get told, but I know that there are countless other warriors who fought for LGBTQ+ rights who’s stories won’t ever get told.