An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted 6/28/2021
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"History isn't something you look back at and say it was inevitable, it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities."
Born in 1945 Elizabeth, N.J., Marsha P. Johnson would cheekily tell people the "P" stood for "pay it no mind." She was an outspoken transgender rights activist and is reported to be one of the central figures of the historic Stonewall Uprising; one of the vanguard that resisted police during demonstrations that followed a raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, on June 28, 1969.
At the time, New York refused to grant licenses to bars that served gays, which allowed police to enter Stonewall with a warrant. They arrested 13 people. At the time the majority of people at Stonewall were either drag queens or gay men of color. Many in the LGBT community credit Johnson for throwing the first brick (or, apocryphally, a shot glass) that sparked the riots. Johnson said she didn't arrive at the bar until rioting was already underway; nevertheless the incident became a rallying cry for the nascent gay rights movement.
A year later, along with fellow trans activist Sylvia Rivera, Johnson helped form Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries (STAR), an advocacy organization that provided housing and other forms of support to homeless queer youth and sex workers in Manhattan --the first such organization to protect transgender youth. She also performed with the drag performance troupe Hot Peaches from 1972 through the '90s and was an AIDS activist with the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Known for her flamboyant shimmering robes, red plastic high heels and floral headdresses, she was a favourite muse of pop artist Andy Warhol and was popularly referred to as "the mayor of Christopher Street."
In 1992 shortly after that year's Pride Parade; Johnson's body was found floating in the Hudson. Originally ruled a suicide, the investigation into Johnson's death was ultimately reopened in 2002, and in 2012 was reclassified as a possible homicide. A great deal of new facts about the case are prominently explored in the 2017 documentary, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, which follows trans woman Victoria Cruz of the Anti-Violence Project as she investigates Johnson's suspected murder. A belated obituary for Johnson was published by the New York Times in 2018. Her trailblazing legacy is stamped indelibly onto the rainbow pride flag.
ADDENDUM 7/30/2021: I erred in supplying Marsha Johnson's deadname near the beginning of the initial iteration of this biography. I can only plead ignorance of appropriate etiquette, and will not make such a mistake in future. Grateful thanks to those who pointed this out.
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