Honoring the Queens who Queened out Before us

Marsha P. Johnson was born in August 1945 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She was the fifth of seven children in her family. She started wearing dresses around the age of five. However, she stopped after she was severely bullied and sexually assaulted by a 13-year-old boy. Immediately after graduating from Thomas A. Edison High School, she moved to New York City with one bag of clothes and $15.

This is when Marsha P. Johnson was truly born. The “P” stood for “Pay It No Mind,” which was essentially her motto. While in the city, she struggled to find employment, so she turned to sex work to survive. She didn’t have a permanent home when she first arrived in the city, so she often bounced around sleeping at friends’ homes, hotels, restaurants, and movie theaters.

When she was 17 years old, Marsha met 11-year-old Sylvia Rivera. Sylvia Rivera was born in New York City in 1951. Her father wasn’t in her life, and her mother died by suicide when Sylvia was only three years old. Sylvia said in an interview that her mother was only 22 years old when she died. Sylvia then went to live with her grandmother. 

She began experimenting with clothes and makeup at a young age and was often beaten by her grandmother for doing so. Sylvia said in an interview that she was about 10 and a half, almost 11 years old, when she decided to leave home and live on 42nd Street. This area was home to a community of drag queens, sex workers, and other hustlers in and out of the gay community. 

Similar to Marsha, Sylvia turned to sex work to make money and was often arrested and beaten by police and customers. When Marsha and Sylvia met in 1963, they became incredibly close, and the two even started working at a place called Charles Restaurant together. Sylvia said that Marsha was like a mother to her and the two were famously together on the front lines of the Stonewall Uprising. 

From Marsha’s perspective, the riots had already begun by the time she got there. According to Sylvia, she didn’t throw the first Molotov cocktail, but she did throw the second. Marsha and Sylvia led a series of protests in support of gay liberation in the nights following the Stonewall Uprising. Like many other transgender people, the two women felt they had nothing to lose and knew this was their moment to fight back. 

Marginalized in a Marginalized Community 

Although they fought for their fellow gay brothers and sisters, these people weren’t necessarily fighting for them. During the first Gay Pride Parade in 1970, trans people and drag queens weren’t allowed to speak. The parade focused more on white gay men and women from middle-class working neighborhoods. 

Groups such as the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activist Alliance were created after Stonewall, and Marsha and Sylvia were involved in both, but the two women grew frustrated by the exclusion of transgender people and people of color from the gay liberation movement. 

In an interview, Sylvia Rivera explained that many people in the gay community were embarrassed by drag queens and trans women. Straight society already judged gay people for being feminine, and gay people didn’t want to be associated with that. They wanted to “pass” for straight and fit in. 

One of Sylvia’s most famous speeches is her “Y’all Better Quiet Down” speech at the 1973 Gay Pride Parade. This speech happened right after another gay activist talked badly about “street people,” aka the gay community living on the streets, aka drag queens and transpeople. Sylvia said: “I have been beaten, I have had my nose broken, I have been thrown in jail, I have lost my job, I have lost my apartment for gay liberation. And y’all treat me this way? What’s wrong with you all?” She then invited people who wanted to do something for everyone to come to the STAR House. 

STAR House & Sylvia & Marsha Move On

The STAR House was founded around 1970 by Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. STAR stands for Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. The house consisted of half a dozen to a dozen young trans people and drag queens who were living on the streets. The women created the house to give these children a home and provide them with the shelter that Marsha and Sylvia didn’t have. The first STAR House was in the back of an abandoned truck in Greenwich Village. STAR House then moved to a dilapidated building, which the women tried to fix up. The group was evicted from this space after eight months.

STAR House didn’t last long, but the two women hustled and turned to sex work to earn money, so the children didn’t have to do it themselves. While they worked hard to support children in the LGBTQ community, other members of that same community were not willing to provide any support. Sylvia said in an interview that she reached out to organizations like the Gay Activist Alliance for assistance with STAR House since they had lawyers and teachers on their payroll, but they didn’t want to help. 

Sadly, Sylvia grew frustrated with the gay liberation movement and began suffering mental health problems. In the mid-70s, Sylvia attempted suicide and after being saved by Marsha, she decided to leave the city and move to Tarrytown in Westchester, New York. 

In an interview, Sylvia talked about how the people of Tarrytown gave her strange looks at first, but then she felt that she started to liberate the people in the suburbs and brought art and culture to the town.

During this time, Marsha P. Johnson became a more visible and prominent member of the gay rights movement. She even attracted the attention of Andy Warhol, who included her in a series of prints in 1975 entitled “Ladies and Gentlemen.” In 1980, she was invited to ride in the lead car of the Gay Pride Parade in New York City.

Tragically, Marsha was diagnosed with HIV in 1990. She spoke publicly about her diagnosis and how people should not be afraid of those with the disease. 

Marsha’s Death & Sylvia’s Return to New York City 

On July 6, 1992, Marsha P. Johnson’s body was found floating in the Hudson River. She was only 46 years old. It was initially ruled a suicide, and the gay community was outraged. There is a Netflix documentary titled The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, which follows Victoria Cruz with the Anti-Violence Project in New York, who is searching for answers in Marsha’s death. 

Randy Wicker was interviewed by Cruz in this documentary since Wicker was Marsha’s roommate for over 12 years, and has been adamant that she wouldn’t commit suicide since she passed. However, police refused to investigate her death as a possible homicide. Five days after Marsha’s body was found, her friends and chosen family gathered in the area where she was found and protested with signs and begged police to do their job. 

The documentary also highlights all the conflicting evidence surrounding Marsha’s death. Randy, her roommate, last saw her on July 2nd. Someone else saw her on the fourth, another person saw her and described her as terrified on the fifth, and her body was found on the sixth.

There have been suspects over the years, but no one has been investigated for the potential crime. Cruz interviews one of Marsha’s friends, Miss. Kitty, who was with Marsha the night she died. They were all walking around the piers, and a group of girls told Miss Kitty that there was a group of guidos driving around and warned her to be careful. Later that night, the girls told Miss Kitty that Marsha may have gotten in that car. But the police did not investigate that. 

The police themselves are suspected of harassing or hurting Marsha the night she died. The Anti-Violence Project recorded 1,300 bias crimes in 1992. About 12-18% of those crimes were perpetrated by police. The Sixth Precinct was a particular problem because they were responsible for patrolling the area near 42nd Street or the Christopher Street Piers, where young trans people or drag queens were working. 

There is also suspicion that the mob could be involved. The Christopher Street Festival happened after the Christopher Street Marches, which were the early pride parades. While the organization Heritage of Pride organized the Christopher Street March, the Christopher Street Festival was organized by the Christopher Street Festival Committee. Members of that committee were the same people who worked at the Stonewall Inn. 

Randy Wicker, Marsha’s roommate, was very outspoken against the mob’s influence on the Christopher Street Festival. Wicker admitted that Heritage of Pride tried to get control of the Christopher Street Festival, and they were threatened by the mob. They even warned Wicker not to get involved because they didn’t want him to get threatened. 

The documentary goes over Marsha’s autopsy, where it states that she went into the water alive, and there is no evidence of violent assault. But that still doesn’t mean she went into that water to end her own life. Her family still doesn’t believe it was a suicide. They believe it could’ve been an accident, or she might have been chased. Police reopened Marsha’s case in 2012, but there have been no leads since.  

After Marsha’s death, Sylvia returned to New York City ready to get back in the fight. She started Transy House in 1997 in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Modeled after STAR House, it gave trans people and drag queens a home. She was also able to reconcile with gay rights groups, who were finally embracing all of the LGBTQ+ community. 

She was even given her rightful place of honor in the 25th Anniversary Stonewall Inn march in 1994. In an interview, Rivera said, “The movement had put me on the shelf, but they took me down and dusted me off...Still, it was beautiful. I walked down 58th Street and the young ones were calling from the sidewalk, 'Sylvia, Sylvia, thank you, we know what you did.'” 

Sylvia revived STAR House after the murder of Amanda Milan. Amanda Milan was a transgender woman murdered on June 20, 2000. 25 years ago today. 

Around 4:00 a.m., Amanda was leaving a group of friends to catch a cab at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. At this time, she encountered 20-year-old Dwayne McCuller, who started harassing her. Amanda stood up for herself, and Dwayne walked away. Dwayne then encountered 26-year-old Eugene Celestine, who told Dwayne that he had a knife. Dwayne took the knife and stabbed Amanda in the neck. Bystanders used her shirt in an attempt to stop the bleeding and called for police. 

They arrived at 4:20 a.m., and she was rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 4:50 a.m. There was a third man named David Anderson who hid Dwayne in his apartment. Dwayne was indicted for murder in the second degree, and he pled guilty and was sentenced to seventeen and a half years to life in prison. David was indicted for hindering prosecution in the first degree, and Eugene was indicted for criminally negligent homicide, criminal facilitation in the fourth degree, and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree.

The murder took place just days before the annual Pride parade in New York, which sparked outrage. Sylvia Rivera organized Amanda’s political funeral along with other demonstrations highlighting the disconnect between transgender people from larger LGBTQ communities. Her death inspired Sylvia to reignite STAR House. Sylvia continued to advocate for transgender people until the day she died. 

Sylvia Rivera died of liver cancer in St. Vincent’s Manhattan Hospital in 2002 at the age of 50. Before she passed, Sylvia had a meeting about the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA) bill with a mainstream gay rights organization called the Empire State Pride Agenda. Sylvia was able to negotiate and got ESPA to agree to have a transperson on their board of representatives. She also convinced them to include language supporting transgender people in the SONDA bill. 

After her funeral service, there was a memorial in front of the Stonewall Inn. Her ashes were carried in a horse-drawn carriage to the Christopher Street piers, where they placed a wreath near the spot where Marsha was found. 

Although they are gone, they have certainly not been forgotten. In fact, they are still helping people to this day. The Marsha P. Johnson Institute was founded as a response to the murders of black trans women and women of color and helps advocate for those women. 

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project works to improve access to respectful and affirming social, health, and legal services for low-income people and communities of color who are transgender, intersex, or gender non-conforming. 

The Fight is Long From Over

In California during the Obama era, they passed the School Success and Opportunity Act, which allowed students to participate in programs and use facilities consistent with their gender identity, regardless of sex assigned at birth. But, Arizona then proposed its first “bathroom bill,” which criminalized the use of facilities that did not align with one’s sex assigned at birth. 

While this bill did fail, it really set the precedent for a series of similar bills in other states. From 2018-2022, 19 states passed a variety of anti-trans laws. The passing of these laws increases risk and decreases safety and health standards and services for trans and gender non-conforming people. 

During this time, The Trevor Project surveyed 61,240 young people to see how the rate of attempted suicides in the previous year changed for residents of those states after the laws were passed. The research showed a small rise in suicides in the state soon after laws were enacted, followed by a bigger increase two or three years after the laws were enacted. The likelihood of a suicide attempt was 72% for 13-17 year olds, two years after a law took effect, than it was before passage.  

According to the Human Rights Campaign, at least 32 transgender and gender-expansive people have been killed through violent means, including gun and intimate partner violence, in 2024. 78% of these victims were people of color, and 56% were black transgender women. 42% of victims whose killer is known were killed by a romantic/sexual partner, friend, or family member, and 38% were misgendered or deadnamed by authorities or the press. 

In 2025 alone, 112 anti-trans bills have been passed so far. There are 920 bills under consideration that would negatively impact trans and gender non-conforming people. 

Just this week, the Trump Administration and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) decided to end specialized suicide prevention services for LGBTQ+ youth on the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. While anyone can call the number and be connected to a trained counselor, the line has counselors specifically trained to assist high-risk groups like veterans and LGBTQ+ youth. 

SAMHSA launched the LGBTQ+ youth service as a pilot program when it launched the 988 helpline in 2022. It has received nearly 1.3 million contacts from LGBTQ+ people (calls, texts, and online chats) since the launch. In January and February 2025 alone, about 100,000 people contacted the hotline. 

The Trevor Project offers free, immediate crisis support. You can connect to a crisis counselor 24/7, 365 days a year from anywhere in the U.S. via text, chat, or phone. Visit The Trevor Project website for more information.