Posted by: AGuyNamedWayne contact

The Queens of Stonewall

Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were two drag queens whose defiant acts against police oppression during the Stonewall Riots have become the stuff of legends. Sylvia Rivera has been credited as being one of the first to pick up a bottle and throw it at the police during the 1969 raid on the Stonewall Bar in NYC that would spark the modern Gay Rights movement. At the start of the riot Sylvia famously cried out “I’m not missing a minute of this, it’s the revolution!” Marsha, who once told a judge during a court appearance that the “P” in her name stood for “Pay It No Mind” is also credited as being a veteran of the Stonewall Riots; and though she seemed most comfortable living life on the streets, she continued her activism and would later garner some notoriety when she was photographed by renowned artist Andy Warhol as part of a "ladies and gentlemen" series of Polaroids featuring drag queens. Marsha along with Sylvia was also a co-founder of STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries). It was the first political organization for transgender rights in the world. Marsha died in 1992 under mysterious circumstances. Despite claims that Marsha had been harassed near the spot where her body was found floating in the Hudson River shortly after a Gay Pride March, attempts to get the police to investigate the cause were unsuccessful and her death was ruled a suicide. Sylvia continued her activism on behalf of gay and transgender people literally until her dying day. She traveled to Italy for the Millennium March in 2000 where she was proclaimed the ‘Mother of all gay people Sylvia’ and On her death bed she met with leaders of the Empire State Pride Agenda in order to negotiate transgender inclusion in ESPA's agenda. Sylvia died from complications due to liver cancer in 2002. Sylvia and Marsha’s lives are a testament to their character as human beings as well as to the proud history that drag queens have in the struggle for gay equality.



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