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SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Dana Rivers isn't just a member of a minority group. She's more like a minority within a minority.
The former teacher who underwent a sex-change operation to become a woman said she and those in the transgendered community are often ignored -- even in the gay world.
"We're feeling a little marginalized," she said. "The movement is struggling to find a place."
Hoping to move beyond the stereotype of the drag queen, a growing number of transgendered people like Rivers are trying to make others - - including gay activists -- feel more at ease.
They want those who feel they were born the wrong sex to become an accepted part of a movement that began 31 years ago, when drag queens and gay men held five days of protests to fight police harassment outside Stonewall Inn in New York.
The Stonewall riots became the catalyst for the modern gay-rights movement, and the anniversary is still marked with gay-pride parades at the end of June.
"After the Stonewall riot, it was a gay movement and pretty much about gay men. Then the lesbian movement kicked off. Then the bisexual community wanted in, and that was accepted," Rivers said.