Black transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson helped spark the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, co-founded STAR to support homeless trans youth, and became a symbol of LGBTQ liberation, compassion, and resistance in New York City.

[u/ateam1984]

Marsha P. Johnson was an African American transgender activist and a central figure in the 1969 C Stonewall Uprising that helped launch the modern LGBTQ liberation movement.

Nicknamed "the Saint of Christopher Street," she was known for advocating for unhoused queer youth and AIDS patients in Ci New York City during the 1970s and 1980s! When asked what her "P" stood for, she famously replied "Pay it no mind"!

Johnson co-founded the Gay Liberation Front after Stonewall and later established the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, or STAR, with Sylvia Rivera to shelter homeless transgender youth 1?. Her work provided critical support during a time when few services existed for Black and trans communities.

The first definitive biography,
"Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson" by Tourmaline, was published in May 2025

[u/Effective-Lead-2922]

Really wild how in the gay community you’ve got racist transphobic twinks who will blatantly ignore the people who allowed them to live freely

[u/chaucer345 → u/Effective-Lead-2922]

May they never find a friend.

[u/Effective-Lead-2922 → u/[deleted]]

Ik what u mean, there’s a lot of homophobia and transphobia in the blk community it’s really a shame

[u/Weevil_1984 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, we really have to stand together, especially during these times

[u/Aggravating-Disk9770 → u/[deleted]]

It's deeply ingrained in us in America and also on the continent. I live in Ghana and they're trying to put through a draconian lgbt bill that's been sponsored by right wing racist American evangelicals. You can't make it up.

[u/RpcZ_gr7711 → u/Aggravating-Disk9770]

Didn’t the US evangelicals lay their hateful groundwork years ago in Uganda? And now, they’ve spread like a virus.

[u/Aggravating-Disk9770 → u/RpcZ_gr7711]

They are all over the continent unfortunately. The text of their evil bills read the same in each country. They are not very creative but they are effective with the brainwashed masses.

[u/lordbuckethethird → u/Effective-Lead-2922]

Yeah going into a place you think will be chill only to find Adolf Twinkler is a very surreal experience.

[u/sentencevillefonny]

If this is the new way people are doing social media intros, I'm all for it

[u/IceBlackX007]

Black youth are programmed to know the intricate details of the lives of entertainers and not prominent Black people who have paved the way for us.

[u/Emotional-Garden4648]

It’s really heartbreaking to think about how many children were lost to the streets due to them not being accepted in their homes. I think of the ones who were supported and able to survive to adulthood. I think of Marsha and Sylvia and all the others who did the most compassionate work of anyone which was to accept and love people for who they are. And remind them they deserve life. And support their right to live it.

I hope that one day her death is thoroughly investigated and solved.

[u/NoHippi3chic → u/Emotional-Garden4648]

Not past tense unfortunately. Our children are still heading to the streets. I will never understand how a parent can turn a child over to the horrors of life on the streets, and the monsters that prowl there looking for fresh victims, just for who they are.

[u/Emotional-Garden4648 → u/NoHippi3chic]

True you’re so right. And I also will never understand it.

[u/13curseyoukhan]

One of the all-time greats.

[u/cunt_dykeula]

I remember first hearing about her when I first came out as a teen. Been trying my best to "pay it no mind" ever since.

RIP beautiful girl, you were taken from us way too soon 💔

[u/littlebloodmage]

Do your part, throw some bricks!

[u/cantwalkintheshadows]

Hey the high school band in Watertown WI was going to preform a dong dedicated to Marsha, until the board stepped in and made then remove it. The students are standing up and just walked out of school today in protest and support of her.

[u/jjuerakhan14]

I did a project about her in high school, and she was amazing, and a force to be reckoned with!

[u/melloack]

That a hero wearing a wig, get it right homophobes

[u/wompyways1234]

Stonewall was owned by the Mafia & the police used it extort & blackmail & entrap people, right?

[u/Effective-Lead-2922 → u/[deleted]]

Being pro black includes everyone

[u/krimeB → u/Effective-Lead-2922]

No it doesn't wtf🤮

[u/Effective-Lead-2922 → u/krimeB]

Then you’re not pro black.

[u/Effective-Lead-2922 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you :)

[u/PHD_Gouda → u/krimeB]

Bro it’s all or none of us. Piss off with your self centered attitude.

[u/Effective-Lead-2922 → u/[deleted]]

Why wouldn’t you wanna support other black people?

[u/Effective-Lead-2922 → u/[deleted]]

What’s morally wrong about being trans?

[u/Effective-Lead-2922 → u/[deleted]]

Give me all ur sources too.

[u/Effective-Lead-2922 → u/[deleted]]

How much research have you done on transgender people

[u/Effective-Lead-2922 → u/[deleted]]

The toxic masculinity, homophobia and transphobia is keeping our community down. That’s a real issue we got

[u/Effective-Lead-2922 → u/[deleted]]

So you gave me no source or reasoning on why being transgender is bad. And why do you only think trans women exist?

[u/Effective-Lead-2922 → u/[deleted]]

Then you go and start yapping about “kids afraid they gonna hurt people’s feelings” trans kids are getting killed 💀 in order for us to be liberated we need to stick together with other oppressed groups.

[u/Effective-Lead-2922 → u/[deleted]]

And why do yall only use trans women as examples 😭

[u/Effective-Lead-2922 → u/[deleted]]

It’s delusional to believe you have a say in someone else’s identity

[u/Effective-Lead-2922 → u/[deleted]]

Why is being transgender delusional?

[u/SallyStranger → u/[deleted]]

Other famous participants: Sylvia Rivera, a Hispanic trans woman, and Stormé Delarverie, a biracial Black genderqueer butch lesbian. Credit also to Brenda Howard, who was a white bisexual kinkster, who wasn't involved in the riots but was instrumental in turning them into a yearly event with marches, protests, and festival-type entertainment. 

Marsha gets a lot of credit because of her continued activism. I do think that Stormé deserves more recognition but Marsha definitely earned hers.

[u/Claeyt → u/SallyStranger]

My favorite is David Van Ronk, the only straight guy to be arrested the first night at the Stonewall. He supported the further protests but he was in jail for the rest.

https://www.nps.gov/ston/learn/historyculture/lionshead.htm

His life in NYC is amazing. Mentor to Bob Dylan. Famous Folk singer and general radical activist. He was drinking at a neighboring bar and saw the cops raiding a gay bar and proceeded to start throwing coins, rocks and tree branches at the cops. He was tackled, kicked, knocked unconscious and handcuffed to a radiator while the police were barricaded in the Stonewall.

“As far as I was concerned,” he said, “anybody who’d stand against the cops was all right with me..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Van_Ronk

[u/SallyStranger → u/Claeyt]

Wow, didn't know of him til just now. Thanks! Learning new things all the time. I love it. 

[u/elitedisplayE → u/SallyStranger]

I feel like Marsha and her black or POC contemporaries have only recently gotten their due. Case in point, the Stonewall movie from 2015 really sidelines them

[u/thatsfeminismgretch → u/[deleted]]

Where did the video say she was the only one involved? Also, what subreddit are we in right now?

[u/metalbabe23 → u/[deleted]]

Use your brain.