This dissertation examines the political consequences of secondary marginalization for the Black and Latino lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer (LGBTQ+) community. Namely, I expand on Cathy Cohen’s conceptualization of secondary marginalization, which refers to the marginalization more privileged members of one group engage in with regards to their less privileged counterparts. Consistent with studies of social movements, I draw from various data sources, including a cross-sectional survey from 2020 and 25 in-depth interviews with Black and Latino activists in racial justice and intersectional causes residing in major cities in the U.S., including Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia, as well as historicized understanding of respectability politics in racial and LGBTQ+ movements, to understand why LGBTQ+ people of color protested in racial justice uprisings in 2020 and other political avenues.Ultimately, I argue that contrary to the view that marginalization can be demobilizing, LGBTQ+ people of color have historically engaged in political battles in racial and LGBTQ+ movement space, articulating and deploying intersectionality as a political praxis to shape the political direction of their respective movements. However, I find that racial identity remains central to the self-concept of these activists, regardless of whether they opt to mobilize around racial justice or intersectional activism, but this concept of race is understood in tandem with other marginalized identities. The findings suggest that race continues to a politically consequential identity, but only as understood through an intersectional framework.