Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a pioneering leader in transgender rights whose advocacy spanned more than five decades from Stonewall to the present, died October 13, 2025, at her home in Little Rock, Arkansas. She was 78. Her death was announced by the House of GG, the healing and leadership center she founded. The Washington Post reported the cause was complications from a urinary tract infection.

Born October 25, 1946, in Chicago, Griffin-Gracy-often simply called "Miss Major"-grew up on the city's South Side and began living openly as herself in adolescence.

She was present during the first night of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, later recalling the police violence that galvanized resistance.

In the years that followed, Miss Major centered people most often pushed to the margins-especially Black trans women, sex workers, people living with HIV/AIDS, and those entangled in the prison system. She led the Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP) and mentored incarcerated trans women she lovingly called her "gurls."

After decades of organizing in California and beyond, Miss Major put down roots in Arkansas, where she founded the House of GG (also known as the Griffin-Gracy Educational and Historical Center), a refuge for rest, renewal, and trans leadership development.

Her influence crossed generations. Admirers hailed her as a matriarch of liberation whose mantra-"I'm still f-ing here"-captured her humor, grit, and insistence on joy amid struggle.

Miss Major's life was documented in the 2015 film "MAJOR!" and in her 2023 book, "Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary," placing her voice at the center of trans and prison-justice histories.

She is survived by her longtime partner, Beck Witt Major; three sons, Asaiah, Christopher, and Jonathon; her sisters; and many "daughters" and chosen family.

By Legacy News Staff

(Image: Patsy Lynch/MediaPunch /IPX)