Celebrating Black History Month: Marsha P. Johnson

Considered one of the trans-rights activists who played a major role in all the important moments of the LGBTQ+ movement, Marsha P. Johnson was an African-American who helped to put LGBTQ+ rights at the forefront of the American national conscious. Throughout Marsha's life, she used multiple pronouns and identified as gay, and as a drag queen. She most often referred to herself using she/her pronouns, and she continues to be hailed as a pioneering hero for many transgender people.

As she began exploring her identity through drag, Marsha settled on the drag queen name ‘Marsha P. Johnson’. This was inspired by the restaurant, Howard Johnson’s on 42nd Street, while the P. stood for ‘pay it no mind’ – a retort Marsha used when asked about her gender.

In June 1969, when Marsha was 23 years old, police raided a gay bar in New York called The Stonewall Inn. The police forced over 200 people out of the bar and onto the streets, and then used excessive violence against them.

Marsha, who was living and working in New York at the time, was one of the key figures who stood up to the police during the raids. Marsha resisted arrest, but in the following days, led a series of protests and riots demanding rights for gay people. Just a month after the protests, the first openly gay march took place in New York marking a historic moment for the gay and trans community everywhere.

Marsha and good friend Sylvia Rivera, who was also an activist , founded STAR - Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries - an organisation to support gay and trans individuals who had been left homeless.

Marsha was nicknamed the “Saint of Christopher Street” (where the Stonewall Inn is located), because of the generosity they had shown towards people in New York's LGBT+ community.

Marsha's legacy lives on today in organisations such as the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, which says it “protects and defends the human rights of BLACK transgender people”.

Marsha often relied on sex work to support herself and the young people of STAR House, faced violence from police and homophobes, and battled with mental health issues.

Soon after the 1992 Pride parade, her body was found floating in the Hudson River. Although the death was initially ruled a suicide, trans activists Mariah Lopez and Victoria Cruz have been among those who fought to get the New York police department to reopen the case as a possible homicide.

Speaking in a 1972 interview, Marsha said that she wanted “to see gay people liberated and free and to have equal rights that other people have in America”. Although she may not have been able to see that brought to life in her lifetime, she did set the stage for future generations to fight on in her wake – as they will continue to do until her vision becomes a reality.