Stonewall

There were other uprisings before Stonewall but they did lead to a revolution, the timing wasn’t right. 

However, all the elements came together at Stonewall to lead to the beginning of the revolution and we lead the way.

Why We Owe Gay Marriage to an Early Trans Activist

Time

By Eric Cervini

June 30, 2020

istory is written by the victors, but what does it mean if we achieved victory only because of someone else’s battle?

As a historian of LGBTQ+ politics and culture, it’s my obligation to look at the hidden side of history, the part of our past that isn’t written by the victors, the history that’s buried in obscure archives, often conveniently forgotten. And that history tells us that we owe many of our victories, including marriage equality, to someone who never wrote a book or got the full recognition they deserve: a trans woman of color.

Fifty years ago, on May 21, 1970, Sylvia Rivera stood before a judge in New York City. Only eighteen years old, she was wearing a purple jumpsuit and large sunglasses.

“Name?” asked the judge.

“Ray Rivera—but call me Sylvia,” she said.

The judge turned to her attorney. “Counsel, is your client a man or a woman?”

Her lawyer paused for a moment. “Yes, your honor.”

By the age of twelve, Rivera had become a sex worker on 42nd street. There, she formed a family of fellow “street kids,” and on the night of June 27, 1969, these youths—many of whom were homeless, thrown out by their families—joined the gender non-conforming patrons of the Stonewall Inn to initiate America’s first widely-publicized queer insurrection against police oppression. Now, historians refer to those four nights of resistance as the Stonewall Riots. And although her story changed over time, Rivera said she was there.

A few months later, in March 1970, Rivera learned about the recently-formed Gay Activists Alliance, the more pragmatic, politically-oriented offshoot of the revolutionary Gay Liberation Front.

[…]

Rivera threw herself into one of the GAA’s first initiatives, a petition for a City Council bill against gay employment discrimination. And on April 15, 1970, at 7:30 PM, a police officer saw Rivera gathering signatures for the petition on 42nd street. The officer told her to leave, but Rivera refused; she had the constitutional right to be there.

Trans people we are the forefront of the GAA and the GLF and the movement came…

In early 1972, the GAA’s Legal Action Committee spun off and funded a new organization: the Lambda Legal Defense Educational Fund. Twenty years later, when no other gay rights organization dared engage in the first legal battle for marriage equality in Hawaii, Lambda Legal became the first to do so. Lambda’s attorneys, including Evan Wolfson, were an instrumental part of the marriage fight for the next two decades, which culminated in the 2015 Supreme Court decision. Because of Sylvia Rivera, we have gay marriage.

But then the white gays only wanted gays in the movement,

Meanwhile, activists increasingly saw “drag queens” like Rivera and Johnson as threats to their cause. Homosexuals were supposed to look and act respectable––not transgress gender norms––to gain acceptance. Plus, some exclusionary lesbian feminists claimed that Rivera and Johnson, nothing more than “men in dresses,” were degrading “real” women. For these reasons, at the 1973 Pride celebration, organizers barred Rivera from speaking to the crowd. She spoke anyways: “I have been thrown in jail, I have lost my job, I have lost my apartment for gay liberation, and you all treat me this way?” The crowd booed her.

Gay activists exiled Sylvia Rivera, heartbroken, from the movement.

There still is a small an element in the LGBTQ community that wants nothing to do with us, but the vast majority of the LGB that support us.

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The National Park Service now recognize the Stonewall Inn as a national land mark and has on there website an article about the GAA and the GLF.

Within weeks of the Stonewall Rebellion, activists formed the first political group to arise out of the recent riots, the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). (See the article about Washington Square for more on the formation of GLF.) However, GLF members quickly divided over strategy. Some wanted to form alliances with other non-gay radical groups like the Black Panthers. Others wanted to focus exclusively on gay issues.

The latter spllt from GLF to form a group of their own, the Gay Activist Alliance (GAA). Arthur Evans, one of the founders of the organization, called GAA “a school for democracy.”

GAA chose the lower case Greek letter lambda as its symbol. In chemistry, the symbol represents a catalyst. According to some, the lower case lambda was chosen by GAA to symbolize a complete exchange of energy. However, others say designer Tom Doerr chose the Greek letter because it was pretty. The lambda is still used by some LGBTQ rights organizations as a symbol for gay issues, including the Lambda Legal Defense Fund.

But the website doesn’t say anything about Ms Rivera or Miss Majors.

Stonewall Riots: Tribute to Drag Queen Sylvia Rivera

Qnotes

By Buff Faye

July 3, 2015

In 1969, much of our LGBT progress began with a riot. I think we sometimes forget that act of rebellion, especially in a banker city like Charlotte, N.C. Today we remember the Stonewall Riots with Pride festivals, parades and orderly marches. But I choose to remember a drag queen and trans woman named Sylvia Rivera.

“Hell hath no fury like a drag queen scorned.” That phrase sums up Sylvia. While there has been much debate as to her involvement at the Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969, Sylvia is often credited with “throwing the first brick” at the police that night.

Sylvia was relentless in her activism, never quietly settling for the status quo or calmly compromising on her principles. After the Stonewall Riots, Sylvia became involved in the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) which then split into the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA). As a queer, Latina and drag queen, Sylvia and her intersectional politics were not often welcome in the GLF or GAA movement, which was largely white, middle-class activist groups.

[…]

“Before I die, I will see our community given the respect we deserve. I’ll be damned if I’m going to my grave without having the respect this community deserves. I want to go to wherever I go with that in my soul and peacefully say I’ve finally overcome,” stated Sylvia a year prior to her death in 2002. Up until the moment she passed, Sylvia continued working for trans inclusion with the New York’s Empire State Pride Agenda.

The Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA) passed in 2002 and was backed by the Empire State Pride Agenda and the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) was passed in 2019 after Empire State Pride Agenda gave up on passing the legislation in 2015 (You can read what I had to say about the Empire State Pride Agenda giving up passing GENDA here).