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The Stonewall Riots: Important Heroines of an Important Uprising

Marsha P. “Pay it No Mind” Johnson & Sylvia Rivera

Jane Doe

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The Stonewall Riots of 1969 is accepted and argued by many to be the most important

event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights within the

United States. The Stonewall Riots, while violent, played a vital role in the dawning of a new

era; a time where the perceived deviants united and fought back against injustice. Without

Stonewall, the rights of LGBT members would have be greatly delayed. While the public

mentions the progress of gays since the Stonewall era, there is a letter, a name, a person, a

marginalized group of people who experienced a different kind of hardship, one that was

impacted by the Stonewall Riots. Transgender people also had an important impact on the

Stonewall Riots of 1969 and vice versa. To prove this, rewind history back to 1969, press play,

and watch the transgendered experience and impact during the Stonewall uprising. The plight of

transgender people both during and after the uprising, sheds light on the importance of

Stonewall. The Stonewall Riots were the catalyst to the gay liberation movement; but it was

prominent members of the transgender community; Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera and

not gay/lesbian people, who were the vanguards of the Stonewall Riots.

Before one can begin to truly understand the importance of the Stonewall Riots and its

vanguards, it may help to understand the timeline of the riot site; the Stonewall Inn and the

events that led to police presence on the night of June 27th, 1969 will be presented. Police

presence was a result of the Inn’s less than upstanding owners; members of the Mafia who

sought to make a great deal of money from selling unlicensed liquor.1 Deputy Inspector Seymour

Pine of Manhattan’s First Division of Public Morals had, prior to the riot, sent several

undercover officers inside the Stonewall Inn on the night of June 27th. Deputy Inspector Pine

1 History.com Staff, "Stonewall Riots," History.com, 2017, accessed March 17, 2018, https://www.history.com/topics/the-stonewall-riots.

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arrived shortly after 1:00 a.m., thus the raid and the Stonewall Riots began in the early hours of

June 28th, 1969.

The reason for the raid originates with the intention of shutting the Stonewall Inn down

permanently, and to arrest the Mafia members running it for selling liquor without a license.2

The Stonewall had been raided earlier that summer as a part of a plan to shut down all Mafia-

owned gay bars in Manhattan. The owner of the Stonewall Inn once said; “Anybody can come in

and not feel uncomfortable. That's what we were fighting about to begin with." The promise of

Stonewall is a promise of radical sexual equality. It excludes no one.”3 The Stonewall Inn was

symbolic in meaning that it was a place where people who were did not conform to the

expectations of society could feel accepted for who they were. The Stonewall was more than a

bar; it was a community, a family, and it was the reoccurring disruption that led to the violent

outbreak of the Stonewall Riots. This was even more true for the “drags” and “queens” [todays

equivalent of transgender] because they were often met with cold responses or even refusal of

entry to many of the gay bars. Stonewall was the exception.4 It was at the Stonewall Inn that

Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera became the female heroines and vanguards of the

Stonewall uprising.

Marsha P. Johnson was an outspoken African American transgender/gay rights/AIDS

activist, a “drag queen” and a sex worker. Marsha was celebrating her 25th birthday at the

Stonewall Inn when the famous Stonewall Riots began. She was famous for her uniqueness,

individuality, passion for equality, and her compassion for others. Marsha P. Johnson’s catchy

2 History.com Staff. 3 Anne-Marie Cusac, "The Promise of Stonewall," The Progressive 63, no. 8 (August 1999): 10, accessed March 17, 2018, EBSCOHost, Academic Search Complete. 4 Garance Franke-Ruta, "An Amazing 1969 Account of the Stonewall Uprising," The Atlantic, January 24, 2013, accessed March 16, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/01/an-amazing-1969-account-of-the- stonewall-uprising/272467/.

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and symbolic catchphrase for the “P” in her name originated from refusing to tell a judge what it

meant. “Whenever she was asked what her middle initial “P” stood for, she famously replied

“Pay it No Mind.” Like the queen that she was, Marsha used the same reply when people pried

about her gender or sexuality.”5 In reference to Marsha’s catchphrase, “Pay it No Mind” and the

ways she used it, gives insight into her personality. In part, it expressed her individuality and

passion for equality. These traits were fundamental to why and how she became a vanguard of

the Stonewall Riots. Coincidentally, the Stonewall Riot is where Marsha met another important

figure with who she went on to do great work with. This woman was Sylvia Rivera.

Sylvia Rivera was of Venezuelan and Puerto Rican descent. She worked as a

transgender/gay rights activist and, like Marsha, was a “drag queen.” She was orphaned at an

early age, and lived with her grandmother until age 10 when she was kicked out of the home.6

Rivera lived on the street and worked as a prostitute before she was adopted by the local drag

queen community.7 Rivera was known for her “incredible spirit and passion for the fight for

equlity.”8 She refused to hide behind a mask of societal acceptability, which gave her the

freedom to become one of the vanguards of the Stonewall Riots. It was the shared experience of

a troubled past that brought Marsha and Sylvia together in their important role in the Stonewall

Riots. It is of little surprise that these women fought for their rights, and the rights of LGBT+

people.

A number of LGBT+ and former street kids avoided the police because mitigating factors

like; police brutality, harassment, and likelihood of arrest. Marsha and Sylvia, however, were not

5 Natasha Schlaffer, "The Unsung Heroines of Stonewall: Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera," Femmes Fatales, October 23, 2016, accessed April 23, 2018, https://sites.psu.edu/womeninhistory/2016/10/23/the-unsung-heroines- of-stonewall-marsha-p-johnson-and-sylvia-rivera/. 6 Leslie Feinberg, "'I'm Glad I Was in the Stonewall Riot'," Workers.org, accessed April 21, 2018, https://www.workers.org/ww/1998/sylvia0702.php. 7 Schlaffer. 8 Laurie Collier Hillstrom, The Stonewall Riots (Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics, 2016), 101.

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ones to shy away from the limelight. Sylvia Rivera wouldn’t yield because she refused to be

something she was not. “Marsha was often recognized for being herself and fearing no judgment

of harassment and ridicule of dressing and living as a women, while having the masculine

features of a man.”9 Marsha was often seen decked out in flowers, jewelry, and exotic hats that

drew attention from the public. Her lack of fear, along with her passion for equality and

compassion for others, allowed her to become a vanguard of the Stonewall Riots as she and

Sylvia fought for both themselves and others like them.

Marsha P. Johnson was one of the first people to engage police in the early morning

hours of June 28th, 1969. The incident began with a raid police who sexually harassed lesbian

patrons. Standard procedure for police officers was to lead women into the bathroom in order to

verify their gender and arrest any crossdressers they discovered. It was around this time that a

crowd of sympathizers began to form outside the Stonewall Inn as they watched “in horror as

employees and drag queens alike were dragged outside and violently handled by the police

before being shoved into police cars.”10 Physical altercations began when a police officer

clubbed a proud lesbian, Stormé DeLarverie, for saying her handcuffs were too tight. These

sequence of events cemented Marsha’s role as one of the first to resist the police in the early

hours of June 28th, 1969. It was then that Marsha Johnson acted: “according to one witness in

David Carter’s 2004 book Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution, Marsha P.

Johnson was a patron at the bar who ‘really started it.’”11 Carter’s book includes over a decade of

9 Tyler Born, "Marsha "Pay It No Mind" Johnson · Challenging Gender Boundaries: A Trans Biography Project," Outhistory.org, accessed May 02, 2018, http://www.outhistory.org/exhibits/show/tgi-bios/marsha-p-johnson. 10 Schlaffer. 11 Jamilah King, "Meet the Trans Women of Color Who Helped Put Stonewall on the Map," Mic.com, June 25, 2015, accessed April 22, 2018, https://mic.com/articles/121256/meet-marsha-p-johnson-and-sylvia-rivera- transgender-stonewall-veterans#.YLzdJbBoz.

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research along with hundreds of interviews. These interviews provided witness accounts, further

illustrating Marsha’s important and formidable role in the Stonewall Riots.

There is much evidence suggesting that Marsha P. Johnson was among the “vanguard” of

those who resisted the police. Susan Stryker, an associate professor of gender and women’s

studies at the University of Arizona, said in a newspaper article that Marsha could be perceived

as the most marginalized of people, which was to be “black, queer, gender-nonconforming,

poor.”12 Those who did not conform to societal expectations were often left behind not only by

the cisgender [gender conforming] heterosexual community but the gay community as well.

Stryker went on to say, “You might expect a person in such a position to be fragile, brutalized,

beaten down. Instead, Marsha had this joie de vivre, a capacity to find joy in a world of

suffering...she channeled it into political action.”13 Marsha was a minority in every category and

yet, combined with her personality, she used her experience and motivation to fight back.

There are several different accounts of how Marsha P. Johnson initially became involved

in the Stonewall Riots. Many believe that she contributed to what was known as ‘the shot glass

heard around the world.’ A witness account in Carter’s book tells of Marsh’s presence at the

Stonewall Riots. “Robert Heide remembers the role Marsha played the night of the riots, ‘just

saw her in the middle of the whole thing, screaming and yelling and throwing rocks and almost

like Molly Pitcher in the Revolution or something.’”14 It is widely accepted that Marsha played a

key role in the uprising, cementing herself as one of the vanguards in the Stonewall Riots.

12 Nick Duffy, "'Overlooked' LGBT Rights Pioneer Marsha P. Johnson Finally Gets New York Times Obit," PinkNews, March 09, 2018, accessed April 21, 2018, https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/03/09/overlooked- stonewall-pioneer-marsha-p-johnson-finally-gets-new-york-times-obit/. 13 Ibid. 14 David Carter, Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2010), 298, Google Books, https://books.google.com/books?id=_D4XdvkOQpYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false.

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Sylvia Rivera was the other transgender woman among the first to fight back throwing a

bottle at an officer. Just 17 years old at the time, Sylvia was in the crowd that gathered outside of

the Stonewall Inn as anger in the West Village started to rise. In a biography by David Carter,

Sylvia Rivera was cited as shouting "I'm not missing a minute of this," she yelled. "It's the

revolution!"15 Sylvia later explained, “This was started by the street queens of that era, which I

was part of, Marsha P. Johnson and many others that are not here.”16 In her own words, she

verifies being a part of the Stonewall Riots.

According to Sylvia Rivera, the night of the Stonewall riot was a very hot, muddy night.

They had been dancing, when the lights came on and the police came in. The police had gotten

their payoff from the Mafia earlier that week, but “Inspector Pine came in-him and his morals

squad-to spend more of the government's money.”17 She included in her account that she and

others were led out of the bar where they “cattled” them up against police vans. People retaliated

first by throwing pennies, nickels, and quarters at the cops, followed by bottles. “And then we

finally had the morals squad barricaded in the Stonewall building, because they were actually

afraid of us at that time. They didn't know we were going to react that way. We were not taking

any more of this shit. We had done so much for other movements. It was time.”18 Her

acknowledgement of the events that transpired further supports that she was not only a

participant of the uprising, but a key party in galvanizing the rebellion. Rivera’s statement to the

effect that she had had enough, and her determination to not back down, gives further evidence

that she was leader.

15 King. 16 Ibid. 17 Feinberg. 18 Ibid.

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The Stonewall Riots are commonly referred to as a galvanizing force in the beginning of

the gay liberation movement. It also marked the beginning of a friendship and partnership

between Marsha and Sylvia. Their friendship lasted until Marsha’s untimely death in 1992 under

mysterious circumstances. After the Stonewall uprising, Marsha and Sylvia co-founded an

organization known as STAR [Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries]. STAR was a group

dedicated to helping young homeless drag queens and transgender women of color. They used

money made as prostitutes, to provide the homeless youth with necessities. “Marsha P. Johnson

and Sylvia Rivera serve as inspirational reminders that, even when the world seems to be pitted

against us, we still must find the strength and courage to stand for what is right. And if others

would try to stand in our way? Pay It No Mind.”19 Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera made an

impact not only at Stonewall in 1969, but for future generations to come.

Throughout history transgender people have been excluded from both the gay rights and

women’s rights movements. Two transgender women, however, refused to be left out of the fight

for equality from the very beginning. Activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were on the

front lines of the fight for transgender rights as early as the 1960s when the movement was just

gaining traction. Marsha was among the first patrons to resist the police that night; Sylvia Rivera

among the first in the crowd of onlookers to take action against the police oppression. The

uprising these two women helped catalyze, spread to the surrounding neighborhoods until all of

New York was in an uproar. “It was those of us who had nothing to lose, and stood up, and

everybody joined in afterwards. It wasn’t just some sort of spectator thing like at a football

game—this was something from our hearts, deep down inside.”20 It was their bravery, along with

19 Schlaffer. 20 Cristan Williams, "Interview With an Actual Stonewall Riot Veteran: The Ciswashing of Stonewall Must End!," The Trans Advocate, February 18, 2013, accessed March 16, 2018, http://transadvocate.com/interview-with-an- actual-stonewall-riot-veteran-the-ciswashing-of-stonewall-must-end_n_8750.htm.

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others at the bar that night, that led to the gay liberation movement. The first gay pride parades

commemorating the uprising were held a year after Stonewall and gay rights groups were

established in every major American city just two years after the riots. A great deal of progress

has been made regarding gay rights since the Stonewall era; nonetheless, there is still a long way

to go for transgender people and their rights.

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Bibliography Born, Tyler. "Marsha "Pay It No Mind" Johnson · Challenging Gender Boundaries: A Trans

Biography Project." Outhistory.org. Accessed May 02, 2018. http://www.outhistory.org/exhibits/show/tgi-bios/marsha-p-johnson.

Carter, David. Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2010. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=_D4XdvkOQpYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage &q&f=false.

Cusac, Anne-Marie. "The Promise of Stonewall." The Progressive 63, no. 8 (August 1999): 10. Accessed March 17, 2018. EBSCOHost. Academic Search Complete.

Duffy, Nick. "'Overlooked' LGBT Rights Pioneer Marsha P. Johnson Finally Gets New York

Times Obit." PinkNews. March 09, 2018. Accessed April 21, 2018. https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/03/09/overlooked-stonewall-pioneer-marsha-p- johnson-finally-gets-new-york-times-obit/.

Feinberg, Leslie. "'I'm Glad I Was in the Stonewall Riot'." Workers.org. Accessed April 21, 2018. https://www.workers.org/ww/1998/sylvia0702.php.

Franke-Ruta, Garance. "An Amazing 1969 Account of the Stonewall Uprising." The Atlantic. January 24, 2013. Accessed March 16, 2018.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/01/an-amazing-1969-account-of-the- stonewall-uprising/272467/.

Hillstrom, Laurie Collier. The Stonewall Riots. Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics, 2016. History.com Staff. "Stonewall Riots." History.com. 2017. Accessed March 17, 2018.

https://www.history.com/topics/the-stonewall-riots.

King, Jamilah. "Meet the Trans Women of Color Who Helped Put Stonewall on the Map." Mic.com. June 25, 2015. Accessed April 22, 2018. https://mic.com/articles/121256/meet- marsha-p-johnson-and-sylvia-rivera-transgender-stonewall-veterans#.YLzdJbBoz.

Schlaffer, Natasha. "The Unsung Heroines of Stonewall: Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera." Femmes Fatales. October 23, 2016. Accessed April 23, 2018. https://sites.psu.edu/womeninhistory/2016/10/23/the-unsung-heroines-of-stonewall- marsha-p-johnson-and-sylvia-rivera/.

Williams, Cristan. "Interview With an Actual Stonewall Riot Veteran: The Ciswashing of Stonewall Must End!" The Trans Advocate. February 18, 2013. Accessed March 16, 2018. http://transadvocate.com/interview-with-an-actual-stonewall-riot-veteran-the- ciswashing-of-stonewall-must-end_n_8750.htm.