$35.00
Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera
Description
Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were self proclaimed drag performers and vibrant, indelible figures in Greenwich Village street life. The women were prominent figures in the Stonewall Uprisings, but their efforts were even more enduring, with the uprisings being just part of their unending commitment to social justice. They emerged from the events that took place at Stonewall in 1969 as leaders in the Gay Liberation Movement. Together they helped found the group STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), which offered housing to homeless and transgender youth, a particularly vulnerable population. Johnson and Rivera recognized that many transgender people turned to sex work after being rejected by their families, and they faced additional hardships and dangers through being unsheltered. Johnson and Rivera opened the first LGBTQ+ (Lesbian Gay Transgender Bisexual Queer) youth shelter in North America, and these trailblazers became the first Trans women of color to lead an organization in the United States.