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20 Transgender Women Who Are Breaking Barriers and Making History

Transgender women are showing the world that they are as capable as everyone else through their trailblazing in different industries. In a world where self-expression is widely applauded, these transgender women have used that as a tool to propel them forward. With unwavering determination, these women have broken barrier after barrier to get where they are and make their marks in history.

In this article, we feature 20 transgender women who are shattering glass ceilings and reshaping the narrative of what it means to be a woman. They wear their identities courageously as they fight for their rights and recognition in society and inspire others on their way. Let’s delve into the list. 

1. Laverne Cox

Laverne Cox is an American actress and LGBT advocate. She rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, becoming the first transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category, and the first to be nominated for an Emmy Award since composer Angela Morley in 1990.

In 2015, she became the first transgender woman to win a Daytime Emmy Award in Outstanding Special Class Special as executive producer for Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word. In 2017, she became the first transgender person to play a transgender series regular on U.S. broadcast TV as Cameron Wirth on CBS’s Doubt.

2. Jazz Jennings

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Jazz Jennings is an American YouTube personality, spokesmodel, television personality, and LGBT rights activist. Jennings is one of the youngest publicly documented people to be identified as transgender.

Jennings is an honorary co-founder of the TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation, which her parents founded in 2007 to assist transgender youth. In 2013, she founded Purple Rainbow Tails, a company in which she fashions rubber mermaid tails to raise money for transgender children.

3. Janet Mock

Janet Mock is an American writer, television host, director, producer and transgender rights activist. Her debut book, the memoir Redefining Realness, became a New York Times bestseller. She is a contributing editor for Marie Claire and a former staff editor of People magazine’s website. Read the top 10 facts about Janet Mock. 

4. Amanda Lepore

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Amanda Lepore is an American model, singer, and performance artist. A former Club Kid, she has appeared in advertising for numerous companies. 

Lepore is noted as a regular subject in photographer David LaChapelle’s work, serving as his muse, as well as many other photographers, such as Terry Richardson and Ruben van Schalm.

5. Rachel Levine

Rachel Levine is a pediatrician who has served as the United States assistant secretary for Health since March 26, 2021. Levine is one of only a few openly transgender government officials in the United States and is the first to hold an office that requires Senate confirmation.

On October 19, 2021, Levine became the first openly transgender four-star officer in the nation’s eight uniformed services. 

6. CeCe McDonald

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CeCe McDonald is an African American trans woman and LGBTQ activist. She came to national attention in June 2012 for accepting a plea bargain of 41 months for second-degree manslaughter of a man she stabbed after McDonald and her friends were assaulted in Minneapolis outside a bar near closing time.

Her story got international attention including in May 2013 when an Ebony.com article about the case won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism Article. She also received support from transgender activist and actress Laverne Cox, star of Orange Is the New Black, which includes storylines about trans women of color and hate crimes.

7. Isis King

Isis King is an American model, actress, and fashion designer. Most widely known for her role on both the eleventh cycle and the seventeenth cycle of the reality television show America’s Next Top Model, she was the first trans woman to compete on the show and became one of the most visible transgender people on television.

8. Geena Rocero

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Geena Rocero is a Filipino-born American model, TED speaker, and transgender advocate based in New York City. Rocero is the founder of Gender Proud, a media production company that tells stories of the transgender community worldwide to elevate justice and equality. Rocero has spoken about transgender rights at the United Nations Headquarters, the World Economic Forum, and the White House. 

9. Kim Petras

Kim Petras is a German singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. Petras’s collaborative 2022 single Unholy with Sam Smith topped charts internationally, making her the first openly transgender solo artist to reach number one in the United States. 

Petras was the first openly transgender artist to receive a Grammy Award for Best Group Performance for Unholy in 2023 and the second transgender woman to win a Grammy following Wendy Carlos. Read more Inspirational Stories of 10 Most Famous Trans Women. 

10. Angelica Ross

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Angelica Ross is an American actress, businesswoman, and transgender rights advocate. 

A self-taught computer programmer, she went on to become the founder and CEO of TransTech Social Enterprises, a firm that helps employ transgender people in the tech industry.

11. Sylvia Rivera

Sylvia Rivera was an American gay liberation and transgender rights activist who was also a noted community worker in New York. Rivera, who identified as a drag queen for most of her life and later as a transgender person, participated in demonstrations with the Gay Liberation Front.

With close friend Marsha P. Johnson, Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, a group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens, gay youth, and trans women.

12. Kate Bornstein

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Kate Bornstein is an American author, playwright, performance artist, actor, and gender theorist. In 1986, Bornstein started identifying as gender non-conforming.  Bornstein now identifies as non-binary and uses the pronouns they/them and she/her. Bornstein has also written about having anorexia, being a survivor of PTSD and being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

13. Sandy Stone

Sandy Stone is an American academic theorist, media theorist, author, and performance artist. Stone is transgender and is considered a founder of the academic discipline of transgender studies. 

Stone has been profiled in Artforum, Wired, Mondo 2000, and other publications, and has been interviewed for documentaries like Traceroute.

14. Danica Roem 

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Danica Roem is an American journalist and politician of the Democratic Party. She is the first out transgender person to be elected to the Virginia General Assembly, and in January 2018 became the first to both be elected and serve while openly transgender in any U.S. state legislature.

15. Lia Thomas 

Lia Thomas is an American swimmer. In March 2022, she became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship in any sport, after winning the women’s 500-yard freestyle event. Beginning in 2021, she became part of the public debate about transgender women in sports.

16. Tracey Norman

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Tracey Norman is an American fashion model, and the first African-American trans-woman model to achieve prominence in the fashion industry. Norman has modelled and been photographed for such publications as Essence, Vogue Italia and Harper’s Bazaar India. Norman also had a magazine cover and life story spread in New York Magazine.

17. Paris Lees 

Paris Lees is an English author, journalist and presenter. Lees is the first transgender columnist at Vogue and was the first trans woman to present shows on BBC Radio 1 and Channel 4. 

She has worked with several media outlets to guide the covering of transgender people. Lees currently works with All About Trans, a project that tries to bring together journalists and other media professionals with transgender people.

18. Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

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Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is a trans woman author, activist, and community organizer for transgender rights.

Gracy has participated in activism and community organizing for a range of causes, and served as the first Executive Director for the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project.

19. Andrea Jenkins

Andrea Jenkins is an American politician, writer, performance artist, poet, and transgender activist. 

She is known for being the first Black openly transgender woman elected to public office in the United States, since January 2018 on the Minneapolis City Council and as the council’s president, since January 2022.

20. Jamie Clayton

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Jamie Clayton is an American actress and model. Clayton is a trans woman. Clayton said that she was primarily interested in Sense8 because of the opportunity to play a transgender character.  She also narrated the audiobook for the children’s novel Melissa about a young transgender girl.

In Conclusion, we can see from the highlighted examples that these transgender women have contrary to societal expectations, shattered glass ceilings and continue to do so in their various industries. They are also inspiring a generation behind them to live their truth boldly. Read more on 20 Most Famous Transgender People.