The "T" in LGBT is Not Silent

If you have ever heard word-of-mouth retellings of LGBTQ history, or have had the disadvantage of seeing the atrocious 2015 "Stonewall" film directed by Roland Emmerich, you may be under the false assumption that the Gay Liberation Movement within America - and, in particular, in NYC - was ignited by white, cisgender gay men. As Emmerich ignorantly stated during an interview after the release (and critical panning) of his film: "Stonewall was a white event, let's be honest." This is a widely-held belief, and has been for some time in the global conscience - even that of the gay community. It is a brutal and unfair act of both cis- and white-washing one of the most prominent uprisings in American history - of which transwomen [of color] held a prominent role.

And if we are going to be honest, there were gay rights demonstrations and protests long before 1969. NYC had been the site of several, but many had also taken place throughout California in the 1950s. The problematic Mattachine Society had been established long before Stonewall, The Advocate had been launched as a publication that strongly supported and catered to a gay readership, there had been marches for civil rights upon the White House, and various protests as a result of police raiding and shutting down gay bars and clubs. The fire for civil rights had been set, but it certainly was the riots at Stonewall that fanned the flames and helped them to spread as widely as they did.

There are few photos and no available videos that show a clear progression of events that took place on June 28, 1969, but all accounts can agree that the Stonewall Uprising was sparked as a result of police brutality, harassment, and prejudicial raids that had been taking place at the famed gay bar in Manhattan. However, the narrative becomes murky when you try to discern who was truly at the forefront of this monumental, catalytic riot. Most people will say that drag queens incited the riots - that it was a drag queen who threw "the first brick" - or was it a handful of quarters, or a high heel? - as push-back against the police that night. I have met people who fervently believe this to be true - drag performers, cis folk, trans folk, white, black, lesbian, gay, queer - it is a common misconception that is in dire need of clearing up - not only because it is not factual, but because it is a harmful rewriting of history that dismisses and marginalizes the vital importance of the transwomen of color who did in fact stand at the fore of Gay Liberation, and have since been erased by the very people that they fought to liberate.

To understand where this confusion comes from, we have to consider semantics, and the colloquialisms of the time. In the 60s, "transgender" was not a term that was widely used outside of clinical atmospheres. In fact, it was not even technically coined until 1965 when John F. Oliven of Colombia University thrust it into the global lexicon and published his piece "Sexual Hygiene and Pathology," which sought to differentiate terms like "transsexual," "transgender," and "transvestite," along with the differences between sex, gender, identity, and orientation. During the 50s and 60s, "cross-dresser," "drag queen," and "transvestite" were commonly-used terms that referred to anyone who pushed the boundaries of their perceived gender, such as drag performers, men with transvestic fetishism, cross-dressers, and transgender individuals; even now, "transgender" is sometimes used as an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of gender identities and expressions. Back then, our sense of community was not defined by labels: we all knew what it felt like to be disenfranchised, and we knew that the world needed to change and learn to accept us as humans deserving of basic civil rights. Transfolk and cis gay individuals, drag performers and people of color - we all flocked to safe havens like Stonewall to feel camaraderie and togetherness, oftentimes in lieu of having actual loving families. And yet, even Stonewall was segregatory: there are various accounts of bouncers turning trans and gender-nonconforming patrons away unless they specifically knew the management. Even at a time where the whole of the LGBT community was seen as sub-human, there was a latent need to organize a hierarchy, and transfolk were at the bottom of it, with cisgender white gay men reigning at the top, facilitating such delineations because they were able to incorporate into society and be undetectable as "other." They certainly did not want to blow their cover fraternizing with the likes of drag performers or transgender folks.

But to play to the honesty that Emmerich thought he was conjuring with his pasty-faced protagonist in "Stonewall," the riots would not have been what they were, were it not for two gender-expansive women of color: Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson. On the night of the Stonewall Uprising, Sylvia Rivera was visiting the bar for the first time at the age of 17. Rivera was a transwoman of Puerto Rican and Venezuelan descent who had been orphaned at the age of eleven and forced to work as a prostitute on the streets near the Christopher St. docks. She was a bawdy, out-spoken, intense figure who shamelessly asserted her identity; she began wearing makeup in fourth grade, and was no stranger to arrests and police beatings for her refusal to conform to gender norms, and her fervent political activism, which sought to eliminate discrimination based on poverty, ethnicity, gender, and orientation. Marsha P. Johnson was an African American performer (often called a "full-time street queen") who was good friends with Sylvia, and was celebrating her own birthday prematurely at the bar and was, by all accounts, upset by the lack of turn-out.

There is some debate about how to classify these women - and, were they here, I am certain that they would denounce such attempts. When reflecting upon her life, Rivera was quoted as saying: "I’m tired of being labeled. I don’t even like the label 'transgender.' I’m tired of living with labels. I just want to be who I am. I am Sylvia Rivera. Ray Rivera [her birth name] left home at the age of 10 to become Sylvia. And that’s who I am." Similarly, Johnson was said to have risen "above being a man or a woman, above being black or white, above being straight or gay" by her roommate and close friend, the journalist Randy Wicker. Because of the lack of distinction between transwomen and drag performers at the time - and the fact that many transfolk discover their identity and evolve through femininity by experimenting with drag - there is understandable confusion as to whether these individuals should be considered transgender at all. However, it is important to note that they both preferred female pronouns, and they both considered surgical transition, before ultimately rejecting it - though Rivera did begin hormone replacement therapy toward the middle of her life, and did call herself transgender and female on many occasions. What is obvious is that they both transcended Western gender norms, and, by mere semantics alone, that places them within the trans spectrum as being transfolk, not drag queens, since they lived this existence twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. For all intents and purposes, they were transwomen - pioneers in the community when it came to visibility.

Life was terrifyingly hard for transwomen of the time. It was a heavily-enforced law in NYC that folks had to be wearing at least four pieces of gender-specific clothing at any time. If the police were to stop you, inspect you, and find that you were wearing women's clothing or cosmetics when they perceived you as a male, you could be arrested, beaten, or worse. The streets of NYC were brutal, and both Rivera and Johnson understood that, as they themselves had been victimized by the prejudicial justice system many times. Their gender expression, on top of their ethnicities, made them easy targets for abuse and violence. Sylvia Rivera was more politically-active than Johnson; she is quoted on the night of the riots as saying: "I'm not missing a moment of this - it's the revolution!" And it was, in many ways - but not for the entirety of the LGBT community. It seemed to be the revolution for gay/lesbian/bisexual rights, with the transfolk being used as political pawns and then scrapped. Johnson was seen during the riots vandalizing a cop car, while Rivera took to chanting and pushing back against the hordes of police who seized Stonewall and fought to arrest any dissenters. She is said to have thrown a Molotov cocktail, truly igniting the passion for justice and fair treatment among the crowd as they realized that aggression may be their only chance to be heard and recognized.

Up until this point, there was a certain sense of status quo among the LGBT community; they knew the violence and discrimination that awaited them around every corner, and being complacent, or invisible, often seemed like the better option when compared to being incarcerated or abused. But trans individuals like Sylvia Rivera were familiar with jail and police brutality; as someone fighting addiction, homelessness, racism, and transphobia, she probably felt like there was not much else to lose every time she began her fervid activism, wondering if it might be her last time. But that was how strong her passion was to see equity become a reality. On the night of the riots, when bar patrons were lined up and forced to show their IDs to the police, and Rivera had to be physically detained by her friend to keep from punching an officer who asked her if she was a boy or a girl.