Marsha P. Johnson, transgender gay rights activist (1944 – 1992)
Little known (or recognized) in the Stonewall Rebellion that launched gay liberation, was the role of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. These two transgender activists were on the leading edge of the rebellion, battling the police, and coining the term “Whose Streets, Our Streets!”
Marsha co-founded STAR (Street Transvestite/Transgender Action Revolutionaries) with Sylvia Rivera, to help aid, feed and shelter queer/trans people without homes and those who’d runaway.
Marsha was found floating in the Hudson River shortly after the 1992 Pride March; the police declined to investigate and ruled her death suicide. Marsha P. Johnson remains a legendary figure in the fight for queer liberation as part of the struggle for racial and economic justice.