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PRIDE WAS A REBELLION (CHECK THE HISTORY)
Stonewall veterans Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson and
Stormé Delarverie,
all instrumental in pushing back police brutality, anti-LGTBQ laws in NYC
Let's get to know them.
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Sylvia grew up in a Puerto Rican and Venezuelan
household until choosing the hustle over transphobic parents.
Sylvia never strayed far from her chosen path.
Welcoming drag queens aided her in finding a new family,
and this would be their revolutionary mission: advocate, speaker.
"Black Marsha"'s birthplace is Elizabeth, NJ.
They slayed as a drag queen for years while
working New York clubs and braving anti-sodomy
or sexual deviancy laws then (The New York Times).
NYC was Marsha's new home by 1963, six years
before Stonewall where they were the
vanguard to stop impending arrest.
They settled on Marsha 'Pay It No
Mind' Johnson over their 30 years in
Greenwich, and they are owed so much.
Read
Marsha's interview with Reina Gossett
Delarverie had been a drag king, bouncing at lesbian
clubs and protecting queer community for years.
June 27th, 1969 redefined liberation from supremacy.
Manhattan elite had its sights on a gay dive bar called Stonewall.
They saw this increasing presence as a manifestation
of everything "wrong" with the city (Lesbian News).
Hear from Storme, Marsha, Sylvia themselves.
""It was a rebellion, it was an uprising, it was a civil rights
disobedience...it wasn't no damn riot!" (StonewallVets)
And Delarverie historically threw that first punch,
though no one knows for sure and many claim to have.
It's notable, family, that Marsha P. Johnson and
Sylvia Rivera DID protest and provide mutual aid
during Stonewall and S.T.A.R. House (Workers World).
"…STAR was born after a sit-in we had New York
University with the Gay Liberation Front.
We took over Weinstein Hall for 3 days.
It happened when there had been several gay dances
there and all of a sudden the plug was pulled..."
Rivera and Johnson's own need for security
and a healthy home led to a community apartment
with over 20 trans youth in a similar spot.
They saved lives, most of all their own.
Stonewall Rebellion and Storme's bold
call to fellow LGBTQIA community,
some 50 years ago now, is still an anti-capitalist
uprising we witness 'round the world.
We WILL amplify the most necessary voices.
And as Elle Hearns wisely told us
(Marsha P. Johnson Institute's founder):
"Without us, there would be nothing to aspire to.
We've managed to exist prior to colonization
and we've managed to exist after it." (Them.us)
You know what's bad-ass? LGBTQIA, Two-Spirit
community has more and more of a platform
to voice their freedom, collective demands for more.
When Tom Morello released 'Stand Up'
a protest anthem centered around citizens' rights
and fighting hate, Shea Diamond is right there:
Black, trans and beautifully vocal.
See the video for yourself! It's incredible!
My shorter clip is below, with
links to the Bail Project and 'Stand Up'
so you can find it on all streaming services.
Money goes to the Southern Poverty Law Center,
The Marsha P. Johnson Institute, Know Your Rights Camp
for children, and NAACP.
"Everybody stares like I’m just my gender
But I’m a living soul with my own agenda
Tell me how you are the priest and the prosecution
Tell me how you have a God who loves executions..."
— Shea Diamond. Enough said!
Will you listen up for this resistance?
Black Trans Femmes in the Arts
Collective Action for Safe Spaces
Emergency Release Fund - LGBTQ NYC residents who need bail
Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative - ATL, Black trans-centered
