On 24 August 1945, legendary Black trans activist and Stonewall rebellion participant Marsha P. Johnson was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey to an auto worker father and housekeeper mother.
Johnson worked as a sex worker, and performed as a self-identified drag queen. In 1969 she played an active role in the Stonewall rebellion, when trans women, lesbians and gay men fought back against a police raid of a gay bar.
Johnson was involved in the Gay Liberation Front, which was much more militant and direct action-oriented than previous LGBT+ rights groups. As Johnson said:
"We want to see all gay people have a chance at equal rights, as straight people in America. We believe in picking up a gun, and starting a revolutionary if necessary."
With her friend, Sylvia Rivera, she co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, a radical group which provided shelter to homeless queer youth, sex workers and trans people. It was funded by Johnson and Rivera's sex work, which was the reason for many of Johnson's 100+ arrests.
Later in life she also organised with ACT UP, the AIDS direct action group, until her death under suspicious circumstances in 1992.
While the NYPD first ruled her death a suicide, her friends and fellow activists were adamant she wasn't suicidal, and that the massive head wound she suffered showed that she had been murdered. In 2012, activists succeeded in pressurising the NYPD to reopen the case as a possible homicide.
Marsha P Johnson born - WCH | Stories
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