Marsha P. Johnson, born on this day in 1945, was a civil rights activist, founding member of the Gay Liberation Front and the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), and participant in the Stonewall Uprising of 1969.
Johnson was one of the first drag queens to go to the Stonewall Inn after they began allowing women and drag queens inside; it was previously a bar for only gay men.
On the early morning hours of June 28th, 1969, the Stonewall uprising occurred. While the first two nights of rioting were the most intense, the clashes with police would result in a series of spontaneous demonstrations and marches through the gay neighborhoods of Greenwich Village for roughly a week afterwards.
According to the New-York Historical Society, “While there are many conflicting stories about the uprising’s start, it is clear that Marsha was on the front lines. In one account, she started the uprising by throwing a shot glass at a mirror. In another, she climbed a lamppost and dropped a heavy purse onto a police car, shattering the windshield.” After Stonewall, Johnson became more involved in activism, helping found the Gay Liberation Front.
To help provide a home for vulnerable trans youth, Marsha and her friend Sylvia Rivera together formed the Street Transvestite Activist Revolutionaries (STAR). The first STAR House was in the back of a seemingly abandoned truck in Greenwich Village, housing nearly 24 people.
One morning, they returned to the truck just as its driver was pulling away with STAR residents sleeping inside, who were then forced to jump from a moving vehicle. Marsha and Sylvia then rented and fixed up a dilapidated building to house STAR residents for eight months before being evicted.
Shortly after a pride parade in 1992, Johnson’s body was discovered floating in the Hudson River. Police ruled the death a suicide, but Johnson’s friends and other members of the local community insisted Johnson was not suicidal and noted that the back of Johnson’s head had a massive wound.
Johnson was cremated and, following a funeral at a local church, friends released her ashes over the river.
The 2012 documentary “Pay It No Mind – The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson” heavily features segments from a 1992 interview with Johnson, filmed shortly before her death.
“Darling, I want my gay rights now”
- Marsha P. Johnson
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as a Marxist: this and other cliches are like, technically correct, but a solid chunk of the time it’s meant as “I really don’t know but there’s a reason for it or things would be different.” which is true but unhelpful.
it’s like when people say “oh, I have materialist analysis while this other guy has idealist analysis, no I will not explain why” when a lot of the time you’re just using a different word for “right” and “wrong”. only real reddit-brained liberals tend to have actual idealist analysis (“Oh, this leader ordered this because he was feeling evil that day, that leader there signed this bill because he’s a good person who believes in democracy”)
I am trying to get away from the imprecise use of those words and only use them when it’s actually applicable, and also listening to other strands of communism when they have complaints about their overuse as thought-terminating cliches
I think a lot of people need to work on this. thanks for explanation, sometimes i feel kinda dumb when people say things like its obvious and im just a bad communist.