Who Was Sylvia Rivera?
When one hears of the Stonewall Uprisings, they are usually told about Marsha P. Johnson, a Black transgender activist, who is widely known as “throwing the first brick” to fight back against the police who raided the Stonewall Inn. In reality, she arrived after the riots began. Due to lack of queer history, more often than not, we don’t hear about the other work that Johnson and other pioneers did for LGBTQ rights. Sylvia Rivera, a Latina-American transgender and drag queen was born in 1951 in the Bronx, NY. Her lifelong commitment to dismantling the laws and systems that uphold discrimination against transgender, gay, low-income, people of color, etc is truly remarkable.
In the documentary, “She Was More Than Stonewall”, Rivera discusses her hardships of being exposed to prostitution on 42nd Street. She was raised by her grandmother up until she was 11-years-old when she started working as a child sex worker, as Rivera’s grandmother did not accept her effeminate personality. As gay and transgender people of color face the highest rates of job discrimination, they turn to sex working to make an income and are criminalized for it. She was constantly arrested for prostitution and was soon radicalized by her experiences as a drag queen and homeless sex worker who battled substance misuse. This led her to fight against systemic racism for incarcerated folks, low-income people, and the LGBTQ community.
As Pride Month ends, it is important to fully highlight the trailblazers for LGBTQ rights and who laid the groundwork for these uprisings to happen.
In a 1989 interview, Rivera explained that before Stonewall, she was a part of the Black liberation movement as well as the peace movement. She became involved with the Young Lords and the Black Panthers. After the Stonewall Uprising, she joined the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the Gay Activists Agenda (GAA) based in New York City.
On April 15, 1970, as a member of the GAA, Rivera was arrested for gathering signatures for a petition for a City Council bill against sexual orientation job discrimination and against pre-existing laws that prohibited homosexuality between consenting adults. In “She Was More Than Stonewall'', Rivera discusses the aftermath of the bill getting passed. She calls it “her bill”, as she and other drag queens helped promote the bill. Rivera expresses the discrimination she faced within her own community where she criticizes the GAA for not giving credit to the transgender people who fought for this bill and for gay rights in general. She gave up everything to fight for gay liberation and was swept under the rug.
Additionally, she and Johnson founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in 1971, which was an organization that attended demonstrations and held space to discuss transgender issues in New York City. They also provided shelter and food to unhoused LGBTQ youth, sex workers, and marginalized members of the community. At only 19 and 26-years-old respectively, Rivera and Johnson were already mothers to a chosen family, protecting their children from sexual exploitation. STAR was formed as a result of the Weinstein occupation –– a five-day sit-in at NYU’s Weinstein Hall. Activists protested as a result of NYU canceling gay social events on campus. Riot police arrived at the residence hall and forcibly removed the protestors. Rivera noticed the solidarity and power she and Johnson held with other transgender and gay activists in Weinstein Hall and saw the vision for STAR to become a radical, non-violent, supportive group. Star House ended after the 1973 Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade when non-binary individuals and drag queens were being asked to stay at the back of the march. Feminist activist Jean O’Leary called drag queen culture misogynist and Rivera felt her as well as other activists weren’t intersectional in their solidarity and activism—leaving out incarcerated, queens and transgender individuals. Rivera moved to upstate New York for the next couple of years.
In 1997 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Chelsea Goodwin, Rivera’s friend, and Goodwin’s partner Rusty Mae Moore started “Transy House”, which followed the model of STAR House. This is where Rivera spent her final years after Johnson passed away and was found in the Hudson River. She found even greater support for her advocacy with the Transy House. Rivera passed away in 2002 due to liver cancer. In May 2019 a monument was erected in Johnson’s and Rivera’s honor near where the Stonewall Riots took place. The riveting and tireless work they put into fighting for their community, as well as other marginalized groups, deserves to be credited forever. As Pride Month ends, it is important to fully highlight the trailblazers for LGBTQ rights and who laid the groundwork for these uprisings to happen.
