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Marsha P. Johnson was born August 24th 1945 in Elizabeth New Jersey. She died July 6th 1992 her body was found in the Hudson River. Martha was the fifth of seven children. She was born a male but grew up preferring female clothes until she was sexually assaulted in school by a boy. She also briefly joined the military which she was stationed in New York Greenwich. She was seen as a mother to others some called her "Drag Mother" because she would help LGBTQ youth from things like homelessness. Even while she experienced mental illnesses she still put others before her. She did many things from attending rally's and going to the newly formed Gay Liberation Front. This was all after she experienced the raid at the Stonewall Inn on June 28th 1969.

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During this time period the Cold War had a surprising amount of historical context relating to LGBT. Beginning in the late 1940's after the Red Scare the Lavender Scare came out to effect gay people who were fired or forced to resign because of their sexuality. While the Cold War was on the rise people feared homosexuality and seen it as a "perversion" and would arrest people who shown public signs of homosexuality. Senator Joseph McCarty was one of these people who seen homosexuality as a form of mental perversion and said how communists were twisted and that they were more likely to join communism because homosexuality was a "peculiar mental twist". More political people also linked communism and homosexuality because they shared similar beliefs that is considered to be mentally disturbed.  Politicians became more involved and pushed forward since it was "easier" to uncover homosexuals instead of communists. Because it was easier, many investigations opened on people to uncover their sexuality to then fire them which would end up having "perversion" or "homosexuality" on their record making it harder to find jobs. Now besides riots there was a guy named Oliver Sipple who was a closeted gay man who took a bullet for President Ford on September 22 1975. Not to long after certain media groups wrote how he was a hero but kept his sexual orientation secret. Except 1 person, Caen who is a friend of Harvey Milk who wrote about how he can be a hero and gay. Sipple attempted to sue Caen but lost. On the opposite hand Leonard Matlovich was a openly gay Vietnam Veteran. He met up with Frank Kameny who wanted to challenge the gay military ban. He soon after was asked to pledge to "never practice homosexuality again". He sued for reinstatement which he won but they then said they would try to discharge him again if he didn't take a pension to not go back to the Air Forces.

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One of the biggest protests that sparked my idea to do this was the Stonewall Riot. The riot was started June 28th 1969 when police raided the Greenwich Inn. Marsha P. Johnson was one of the people who led the riot and it lasted 6 days and violence was used against police who tried to push back. There were constant riots throughout the 1960s in gay bars and clubs. Marsha also formed STAR which stands for Street Transvestite Activist Revolutionaries to help protect young trans youth living on the street by helping them get a home. She eventually contacted aids in 1990 and openly spoke about it to desensitize it to others and make them less afraid.

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The outcome of the Stonewall helped further progress gay liberation all the way to the 21st century. The gay liberation front was the first group to form in New York City after the riot. The GLF also began to spread through news and held meetings but people eventually created another group called the Gay Activist Alliance or otherwise known as GAA due to the lack of help from GLF. GAA used a confrontational tactic where they would zap politicians to make them aware of their sexual orientation which helped influence more LGBTQ people to join the activists. Another outcome was by June 28th 1970 pride marches began to spread and Frank Kamey even acknowledged this change and many others who use to see the stonewall as a homosexual movement now also saw it as the birth of the gay liberation movement which would continue to make big changes throughout the years which even helped lead to the legalization of same sex marriage in 2015 which all 50 states had to legalize it and the case fell under Obergefell v. Hodges. There was still some downsides of it unfortunately and after the riot police raided even more gay bars and clubs and outsiders saw it as a "attack" towards straight people. Stores would also consider LGBTQ people as riff raff and force them to leave in fear another uprising would begin. This obviously did not help LGBTQ people feel accepted and only worsened the difference between straight and gay people. Which fueled their homophobia and out lashed towards openly gay people causing many deaths to prevail.

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So as of currently the gay liberation was casted into eclipse by mainstream LGBTQ activists. Marsha P. Johnson died but her honor is still celebrated with each anniversary of the Stonewall Riot. The issue to this day is still viewed in a better light with the legalization of same sex marriage but there are still states who attempt to ban or bar certain LGBTQ members and LQBT people still have to fight for their rights and many activists still exist to this day. This has been and will always be a prominent issue but the movement to this day has grown into a bigger movement and people still continue to fight and protest for their civil rights.

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1492-1734 Early Encounters

Nicolás Enríquez de Vargas (artist), Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, ca. 1750. Oil on canvas. Chapultepec Castle, Mexico City.

1692-1783 Settler Colonialism and the Revolution

François (Franz) Fleischbein (artist), Portrait of Betsy, 1837. The Historic New Orleans Collection, acc. no. 1985.212.

1776-1831 Building a New Nation

Jarena Lee, 1849. Religious Experience and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee: giving an account of her call to preach the gospel, frontispiece. Engraving. New-York Historical Society Library.

1828-1869 Expansions and Inequalities Coming 2022!

Unknown photographer, A Typical Boomer Family, ca. 1890. New-York Historical Society.

Coming in 2022!

Expansions and Inequalities, 1820-1869 examines what Westward Expansion meant to the diverse women living within and outside of the expanding nation’s borders, how women responded to the burgeoning immigration debate, and the roles women played in the early years of the Industrial Revolution.

1832-1877 A Nation Divided

Unidentified African American woman in uniform, 1861. New-York Historical Society Library.

1866-1904 Industry and Empire

Cihak and Zima (photographer), Ida B. Wells-Barnett, ca. 1893-1894. University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center.

1889–1920 Modernizing America

Gertrude Kasebier (photographer), Zitkala Sa, Sioux Indian and activist, c. 1898. Gertrude Kasebier, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

1920–1948 Confidence and Crises

Chien-shiung Wu (1912-1997), professor of physics at Columbia University, 1963. Smithsonian Institute Archives Image # SIA 2010-1509.

1948–1977 Growth and Turmoil

“Oportunidades Iguales Para Las Mujeres En El Trabajo y La Educaccion”, Women’s Strike for Equality, New York, Fifth Avenue, 1970, Eugene Gordon photograph collection, 1970-1990. New-York Historical Society Library.

1974-2018 The Information Age Coming 2022!

Sarah Atwood Yale (maker), “I march against…” embroidered sign carried at Women’s March on Chicago, 2017. New-York Historical Society, Gift of Sarah Atwood Yale.

Coming in 2022!

The Information Age, 1974-2018 looks at the experiences of women as technology, globalization, and increasingly polarized politics shaped the nation.

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Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera

Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, ca. 1989-1990. The Rudy Grillo Collection, Rudy Grillo / LGBT Community Center Archive.

Marsha P. Johnson at the First Christopher Street Liberation Day March

Marsha P. Johnson at the First Christopher Street Liberation Day March, 1970. Leonard Fink / LGBT Community Center Archive.

Marsha P. Johnson was born on August 24, 1945, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She was identified as male at birth. However, young Marsha enjoyed wearing clothing made for girls. After a boy sexually assaulted her, she stopped wearing the clothes she loved and felt most comfortable in.

After graduating high school, Marsha moved to New York City with only $15 and a bag of clothes. She began dressing almost exclusively in women’s clothes and adopted the full name Marsha P. Johnson. The “P” stood for “Pay It No Mind.” To her, this was a life motto and a response to questions about her gender.

Today, historians and former friends of Marsha describe her as a trans woman. During Marsha’s lifetime, the term transgender was not commonly used. Marsha described herself as a gay person, a transvestite, and a drag queen. She used she/her pronouns.

Marsha was part of a growing community of LGBTQ youth who sought acceptance in New York City. But in the 1950s and 1960s, LGBTQ people’s rights were strictly limited. For example, dancing with a person of the same sex as well as cross-dressing were illegal.

It was difficult for Marsha to find work. She realized that the fastest way to make money was to “hustle.” This meant working as a sex worker; The work, due to stigmatization of sex workers, was incredibly dangerous. Marsha was often alone with strangers in hotel rooms and cars. Sometimes, the strangers were violent. On multiple occasions, clients pulled guns on Marsha. Once, she was even shot.

Marsha spent most of her life without a permanent home. She slept in hotel rooms, restaurants, and movie theaters. She sometimes lived with friends. Even when she found work waiting tables or performing in drag shows, she still made most of her money as a sex worker.

Not long after arriving in New York, 17-year-old Marsha met 11-year-old Sylvia Rivera. Sylvia was a Puerto Rican trans woman who was also new to New York. The two became instant friends. Marsha taught Sylvia how to apply makeup, live on the street, and look out for trouble. She also encouraged Sylvia to love herself and her identity.

Marsha enjoyed expressing herself through her appearance. Her lavish outfits were often made from thrift store finds, gifts from friends, and items she found on the street. She also created and wore elaborate crowns of fresh flowers.

Marsha’s life dramatically changed when she found herself near the Stonewall Inn in the early hours of June 28, 1969. That night, police officers raided the gay bar. As the officers began to arrest people for violating various discriminatory laws, the patrons of the Stonewall fought back.

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. Young trans women like Marsha were particularly vocal that night because they felt they had nothing to left to lose. Their rage was not just about the police. It was about the oppression and fear they felt every single day.

Darling, I want my gay rights now. I think it’s about time the gay brothers and sisters got their rights . . . especially the women.

The Stonewall uprising was an awakening for an entire generation of LGBTQ activists. Soon, Marsha was attending rallies, sit-ins, and meetings of the newly formed Gay Liberation Front. She was excited about the work but frustrated at how white gay men and lesbians dominated the conversation. She questioned where transgender people fit in. Transpeople were more likely to be homeless and targeted by police. The movement did not appreciate the extent to which transgender youth needed help and support.

In 1970, Sylvia came to Marsha with an idea. She wanted to protect young transpeople living on the street by giving them a home. She asked Marsha to help her create a place where they could feel safe, unite, and fight for their rights. Marsha and Sylvia later formed the Street Transvestite Activist Revolutionaries (STAR). The first STAR House was in the back of an abandoned truck in Greenwich Village. Nearly 24 young people called the truck home. Sylvia and Marsha hustled every night to make sure their new family had breakfast each morning.

One morning, they returned to the truck just as it was pulling away with STAR residents sleeping inside. Apparently, the truck was not abandoned after all. As they watched their “kids” jump from a moving truck, Marsha and Sylvia realized they needed a real home. They rented a dilapidated building with no electricity or running water. They fixed up the building and paid rent for nearly eight months. When they could no longer pay, they were evicted. But the impact of STAR had already been felt by many.

Even without lodgings, STAR provided a safe haven for people who had never had a place to call home. As the gay liberation movement became increasingly white, middle class, and cisgender, STAR reminded everyone that transgender and gender non-conforming people deserved equal rights too. When the organizers of the gay pride parade tried to ban STAR, they showed up anyway.

In 1975, artist Andy Warhol crossed paths with Marsha and photographed her for his Ladies and Gentleman series. When a Warhol screen-print of Marsha went on display in a Greenwich Village store, Marsha took some friends to see it. The store owners called her riffraff and threw her out.

Marsha’s whole life seemed to be a balance between popularity and exclusion. Throughout Greenwich Village, she was known as “Saint Marsha.” Locals admired her ability to truly be herself. Marsha had a reputation for being generous and kind. She gave people clothes and food, even though she had little of her own.

Despite her popularity, Marsha also lived a life of poverty and danger. She was arrested over 100 times. She believed no one should hustle or live on the streets, but she knew no other way to survive. In 1990, Marsha contracted AIDS. She spoke publicly about it and told people she hoped they would not be afraid of those who had the disease.

On July 6, 1992, Marsha’s body was found floating in the Hudson River. The police officers ruled her death a suicide. Marsha’s friends and acquaintances strongly disagreed. They thought it was more likely that Marsha was a victim of an attack. Trans women, particularly women of color, were regular targets of hate crimes. The LGBTQ community was furious the police did not investigate her death. At Marsha’s funeral, hundreds of people showed up. The church was so full that the crowd spilled into the street.

The case involving Marsha’s death remained closed for decades. In 2012, the New York City Police Department finally agreed to re-open it, yet the case still remains unsolved. Since then, Marsha has become an icon of the transgender community. In 2019, New York City announced that a statue of Marsha and Sylvia would be the first monument to honor trans women in the city. In 2020, New York State named a waterfront park in Brooklyn after Marsha.

Vocabulary

AIDS: Acronym for Auto Immune Deficiency Disorder. An infectious disease that attacks a person’s immune system and can be difficult to treat.

cisgender: A person who identifies with the sex they were assigned at birth.

cross-dress: To wear clothes typically associated with a different sex and is most commonly used to describe men who wear make-up and women’s clothing.

drag queen: A performance artist who typically dresses up like a woman for entertainment purposes.

gay: A man attracted to men.

lesbian: A woman attracted to women.

LGBTQ: An acronym that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and is an umbrella term for the community of people whose gender and sexual identities exist outside of heteronormative expectations.

trans woman: A person who was assigned male at birth but identifies as a woman.

transgender: A person who does not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. A term for all trans men and trans women.

transvestite: A term to describe people who wear clothes designed for the opposite sex. While it was in use during Marsha’s life, this term is now considered offensive and has been replaced with other terminology, such as transgender.

Note: Marsha’s life story includes a large amount of vocabulary that may be unfamiliar to teachers and students. To learn more, check out the vocabulary resource guides from GLAAD: Transgender glossary and LGBTQ glossary.

Discussion Questions

Why did Marsha move to New York City? What challenges did she face there? What opportunities did she find?

Describe Marsha’s and Sylvia’s friendship. Why do you think they were so close?

What was STAR, and why was it so important?

What tensions existed within the gay liberation movement? How did Marsha feel about this?

What was Marsha’s role in the Stonewall uprising, and how did it shape the rest of her life?

How did Marsha embody her “Pay It No Mind” name?

What were the circumstances around Marsha’s death? What does this make you think and feel?

Why do you think Marsha’s life has started to gain more attention in recent years? What and who does she represent and why is this important?

Suggested Activities

Marsha was neither the first nor the last trans woman of color to be a victim of violence. Regardless of the true nature of her death, she was a victim of violence, including police brutality, throughout her life. Invite students to research recent activism around the extreme violence that trans women of color continue to face. You may wish to start with a screening of The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson or a search for the Black Trans Lives Matter movement.

Much of Marsha’s life story has been pieced together through interviews featured in the documentary Pay It No Mind—The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson. Screen excerpts from this film so that students can hear directly from Marsha and the people in her life.

Compare the lives of Marsha P. Johnson and Christine Jorgensen, two trans women from New York City. How did issues of race and privilege inform their experiences?

Connect Marsha’s life story to other LGBTQ individuals within WAMS, including Thomas(ine) Hall, the Public Universal Friend, Bessie Smith, Jane Addams, Pauli Murray, Christine Jorgensen, Antonia Pantoja, and Billie Jean King.

One of Marsha’s proudest moments was with Andy Warhol. Invite students to study Warhol’s portrait of Marsha and learn about the Ladies and Gentleman series through the Tate Britain’s website.

Invite students to learn more about the Stonewall Inn uprising by exploring the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project and the National Park Service websites.

A few days before her death, Marsha gave an interview in which she joked about the recent installment of a monument outside the Stonewall Inn. She noted that many people had to die in order for “two statues” to be erected. Invite students to learn more about this monument and connect it to the life of Marsha P. Johnson. Why do they think Marsha had this attitude? Do they believe the monument is an appropriate homage to this event and community?

Invite students to research the ways in which Marsha’s legacy is being remembered today. Encourage them to search for articles about the Marsha and Sylvia statue in New York City, Marsha P. Johnson state park in Brooklyn, and more. Ask them to think about the kind of monument or memorial they would want to create for Marsha, based on her life story.

Themes

AMERICAN IDENTITY AND CITIZENSHIP; ACTIVISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE

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Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, ca. 1989-1990. The Rudy Grillo Collection, Rudy Grillo / LGBT Community Center Archive.

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The fifth of seven children, Marsha was born Malcolm Michaels Jr. to Malcolm Michaels Sr. and Alberta (Claiborne) Michaels on August 24, 1945, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Marsha was educated in the Elizabeth Public School System and graduated from Thomas A. Edison High School in 1963. After graduating high school, she enrolled in the United States Navy for a brief stint.

Marsha relocated to New York's Greenwich Village to discover herself. As a transient, she turned to prostitution to survive and soon found a like-minded community within the nightlife of the village. She found joy as a self-made drag queen of Christopher Street, infamous for her unique design and costume creation. Throughout her discovery phase, she was referred to as Malcolm, and Black Marsha before settling on Marsha P. Johnson. The "P" stands for "Pay It No Mind." Johnson quickly became a prominent fixture in the LGBTQ community serving as a "drag mother" helping homeless and struggling LGBTQ youth. Marsha was extremely successful and toured the world as a successful drag queen with the Hot Peaches.

"I was no one, nobody, from Nowheresville until I became a drag queen. That's what made me in New York, that's what made me in New Jersey, that's what made me in the world."
Marsha P. Johnson

Although Marsha struggled with mental illness, she had a profound way of putting others' needs before her own. Johnson remained in constant communication with her family and often returned home to Elizabeth in observance of the holidays. During her commute home, Marsha would invite wayward people to join her for a hot meal with her family. Marsha never visited home empty-handed, she would bring her nieces and nephews trinkets and flowers for her mother. Contrary to the belief, the family was very dear to Marsha's heart.

Her forthright nature and enduring strength led her to speak out against injustices. June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street, things turned violent after members of the LGBTQ community were harassed by the NYPD sixth prescient. Many eyewitnesses have identified Marsha as one of the main instigators of the uprising and thus, some have recognized her as the vanguard of the gay liberation movement in the United States.

Following the events at Stonewall, Johnson and her friend Sylvia Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) and they became fixtures in the community, helping homeless transgender youth. STAR provided services including shelter to homeless LGBTQ people in New York City, Chicago, California, and England for a few years in the early 1970s but eventually disbanded.

July 6, 1992, Johnson's body was found in the Hudson River off the West Village Piers. The police ruled she had committed suicide despite claims from her friends and other members of the local community that she was not suicidal. Twenty-five years later, Victoria Cruz, a crime victim advocate of the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP) re-opened the case.

Johnson's story is featured in Pay It No Mind: Marsha P. Johnson (2012) and The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017) and Happy Birthday, Marsha! (2017). Marsha is honored as a Stonewall pioneer, a drag queen, and Andy Warhol model, an actress, and a revolutionary trans activist.

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The fifth of seven children, Marsha was born Malcolm Michaels Jr. to Malcolm Michaels Sr. and Alberta (Claiborne) Michaels on August 24, 1945, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Marsha was educated in the Elizabeth Public School System and graduated from Thomas A. Edison High School in 1963.

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Was Stonewall a Riot, an Uprising or a Rebellion?

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The terms used to describe the 1969 event that helped spark the modern LGBT-rights movement have changed. Here's how-and why it matters.

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The Stonewall Riots: How the gay rights movement began

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LGBT+ History By The Decades: Gay Liberation | Episode 7

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Marsha P. Johnson: Transgender Activist (WAMS E19)

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...Opening Spotify...

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Listen to this episode from School Project About the Lavender Scare on Spotify. General Information about the Lavender Scare

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...Opening Spotify...

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This final episode talks about the impact of the Lavender Scare and where LGBTQ rights are today.

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...Opening Spotify...

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Listen to this episode from School Project About the Lavender Scare on Spotify. This episode talks about how the Lavender Scare affected some individuals.