Marsha P. Johnson(1945 — 1992)
Marsha P. Johnson
États-Unis
8 min read
A transgender African American activist, Marsha P. Johnson was one of the iconic figures of the Stonewall uprising in 1969. Co-founder of STAR, she spent her entire life fighting for the rights of LGBT+ people and the homeless.
Famous Quotes
« No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us. »
« I may be crazy, but that don't make me wrong. »
Key Facts
- Born on August 24, 1945, in Elizabeth, New Jersey
- Participated in the Stonewall Inn uprising in New York in June 1969
- Co-founded STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) with Sylvia Rivera in 1970
- AIDS activist in the 1980s–1990s as a member of ACT UP
- Died under murky circumstances on July 6, 1992, in New York
Works & Achievements
Together with Sylvia Rivera, Marsha co-founded the first American organization dedicated to the rights of marginalized transgender and transvestite people, pioneering the articulation of civil rights, LGBT, and anti-poverty struggles.
Marsha and Sylvia opened an apartment shelter for LGBT youth rejected by their families, a forerunner of the specialized support structures that would develop across the United States in the following decades.
Present during the resistance at the Stonewall Inn, Marsha became a symbolic figure of this founding event of the global gay liberation movement, commemorated every year by Gay Pride.
An active member of ACT UP, Marsha demonstrated to demand a political response to the AIDS crisis, taking part in direct actions that helped pressure American authorities into accelerating therapeutic research.
Photographed by Andy Warhol for this major series, Marsha helped inscribe the image of transgender women of color into the history of American contemporary art.
Anecdotes
The “P” in Marsha P. Johnson’s name didn’t stand for any first name. During a court appearance, a judge asked her what the initial represented. She replied without missing a beat: “Pay it no mind.” That phrase became her motto — an elegant brush-off for any intrusive question about her gender identity.
On the night of June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar in Greenwich Village frequented by gay men and transgender people. For once, the patrons fought back. Marsha P. Johnson, who was there that night, actively took part in the resistance. The Stonewall Riots marked the beginning of the modern gay liberation movement in the United States.
In 1970, Marsha and her friend Sylvia Rivera founded STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), a mutual-aid organization for homeless LGBT youth. They opened the “STAR House,” an apartment in Manhattan where they welcomed young people rejected by their families. To pay the rent and feed the residents, Marsha and Sylvia sometimes had to work the streets of the Village at night.
In 1975, celebrated artist Andy Warhol photographed Marsha P. Johnson for his “Ladies and Gentlemen” series — a collection of portraits of drag queens and transgender women of color. These portraits helped bring Marsha visibility in New York art circles, even as she continued to live in poverty despite that recognition.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, the AIDS crisis was devastating New York’s LGBT community. Marsha joined ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and regularly demonstrated to demand government funding for research and accessible treatments. She lost many friends to the disease before dying in 1992 at age 46, in circumstances that were never fully clarified.
Primary Sources
STAR is a revolutionary group of street drag queens committed to fighting for the liberation of all oppressed people, including homeless youth, gay people, and street people.
I was no one, nobody, from Nowheresville, until I became a drag queen. That's what made me in New York, that's what made me move ahead.
We're not going to be silent while our community is dying. The government has blood on its hands.
As long as my people don't have their rights across America, there's no reason for celebration.
Key Places
Marsha P. Johnson's hometown, where she grew up in a religious African-American family. She left the city at 17 to escape rejection tied to her gender identity.
The iconic bar where the riots of June 28–29, 1969 took place. Marsha was present on that historic night, now considered the founding moment of the global gay liberation movement. The site is today a national monument.
An apartment opened in 1972 by Marsha and Sylvia Rivera to shelter homeless LGBT youth — the first refuge of its kind in the United States. It embodied their hands-on commitment to the most vulnerable members of the community.
The main thoroughfare of New York's gay neighborhood, where Marsha lived and organized on a daily basis. Each year the Gay Pride march set off from here, and she was one of its most iconic participants.
On July 6, 1992, Marsha P. Johnson's body was found in this river. The circumstances of her death remain shrouded in mystery; her friend Victoria Cruz spent years investigating in an effort to have the case reopened as a homicide.