1951–2002
Who Was Sylvia Rivera?
Sylvia Rivera was one of the most influential activists in the Gay Liberation Movement of the 1960s and ’70s. A drag queen and transgender woman, Rivera was a key figure in the Stonewall Riots of 1969 and later cofounded the Gay Liberation Front, which became a leading group in the movement. She also co-created the transgender rights organization STAR with fellow LGBTQ activist Marsha P. Johnson. Rivera died of cancer in 2002 at age 50.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Sylvia Rivera
BORN: July 2, 1951
DIED: February 19, 2002
BIRTHPLACE: New York, New York
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Cancer
Early Life
Sylvia Rivera was born on July 2, 1951, in the Bronx borough of New York City. Rivera, who was assigned male at birth, was of Puerto Rican and Venezuelan descent.
She had a troubled childhood starting with her father’s abandonment shortly after her birth. As a toddler, she was orphaned when her mother died by suicide. Her grandmother stepped in to raise her, but Rivera was rejected and beaten for her effeminate behavior.
At age 11, she ran away from home and became a victim of child sexual exploitation. While living on the streets, Rivera met a group of drag queens who welcomed her into their fold. It was with their support that she took the name Sylvia and began identifying as a drag queen. Later in life, she considered herself transgender, though she disliked labels.
LGBTQ Activism
Against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Rights Movement, and the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, Rivera’s activism began to take shape. In June 1969, at age 17, she took part in the famous Stonewall Riots by allegedly throwing the second molotov cocktail in protest to a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Manhattan. The six-day event was one of the major catalysts of the gay liberation movement, and to further push the agenda forward, Rivera cofounded the Gay Liberation Front the next month.
In later interviews, Rivera reminisced about her special place in history. “We were the frontliners. We didn’t take no shit from nobody. We had nothing to lose,” she said.
Cofounding STAR
Along with the establishment of the Gay Liberation Front, Rivera teamed up with friend Marsha P. Johnson to cofound STAR—officially the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries—in 1970. The group met regularly to organize and discuss political issues affecting the trans community.
Soon after, the activists founded STAR House in Manhattan’s East Village to provide food, clothing, and housing for LGBTQ youth in need. Like Rivera, Johnson had also been homeless as a teenager. River was only 19 years old at the time. Later, she recalled that she and Johnson had “decided it was time to help each other and help our other kids.”
“Y'all Better Quiet Down” Speech
Defiant of labels, Rivera confounded many in the mainstream gay liberation movement because of her own diverse and complex background. She was poor, trans, a drag queen, a person of color, a former sex worker, and someone who also experienced drug addiction, incarceration, and homelessness.
For all of these reasons, Rivera fought for not only gay and trans rights but also for racial, economic, and criminal justice issues. But the gay middle-class white men and lesbian feminists didn’t seem to understand or share her passion for uplifting marginalized groups within the larger LGBTQ community.
Angered by the lack of inclusion, Rivera delivered her fiery “Ya’ll Better Quiet Down” speech at the 1973 Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally in Washington Square Park. Amid boos from the crowd, she said:
“You all tell me, go and hide my tail between my legs.
I will no longer put up with this shit.
I have been beaten.
I have had my nose broken.
I have been thrown in jail.
I have lost my job.
I have lost my apartment.
For gay liberation, and you all treat me this way?
What the f––’s wrong with you all?
Think about that!”
New York City’s Gay Rights Bill
Eager to protect the rights of trans people, Rivera advocated for the passage of New York City’s Gay Rights Bill in the 1970s, which aimed to prevent discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations. She was even arrested while petitioning in Times Square. Although trans people were initially included in discussions about the bill, the final version passed in 1986 only prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
“They have a little backroom deal without inviting Miss Sylvia and some of the other trans activists to this backroom deal with these politicians. The deal was, ‘You take them out, we’ll pass the bill,’” Rivera later explained.
Feeling betrayed by the movement she had fought so long and hard for, Rivera left the city and disappeared from activism for many years. It was around this time that she started a catering business in Tarrytown, New York.
Later Activism with ACT UP
Rivera eventually returned to fight for trans issues starting in the mid-1990s amid cultural conversations around issues like gay marriage and LGBTQ people serving in the military. She joined ACT UP, or the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, during the HIV/AIDS crisis. Although she wasn’t a founding member, she participated in protests and demonstrations with the organization in New York City, with the aim of raising awareness of AIDS and fighting for better treatment of people living with the disease. She also began working as food pantry director at Metropolitan Community Church.
On the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, in 1994, Rivera was given a place of honor in New York City’s pride parade. Following a suicide attempt in May 1995, she reflected on the on her place in the gay rights movement.
“The movement had put me on the shelf, but they took me down and dusted me off,” Rivera told The New York Times. “Still, it was beautiful. I walked down 58th Street, and the young ones were calling from the sidewalk, ‘Sylvia, Sylvia, thank you, we know what you did.’ After that, I went back on the shelf. It would be wonderful if the movement took care of its own.”
Partner Julia Murray
After years of living on the streets, in 1997, Rivera moved into Transy House, a collective in Brooklyn that provided housing to trans people. It was there that she met her partner Julia Murray. The two were close friends for a long time before they began dating in 1999. “She’s a person that has made my life different,” Rivera said of Murray to The New York Times that June. “She’s helped me—I’m not doing drugs, and I’m not drinking so much. It’s just that we’re happy together.” The couple stayed together until Rivera’s death in 2002.
Death and Legacy
On February 19, 2002, Rivera died from liver cancer at Saint Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center in New York City.
In honor of her activism in the gay and trans community, The Sylvia Rivera Law Project was founded just months after her death. The organization provides legal aid to trans, intersex, and gender-nonconforming individuals, especially people of color.
The pioneering activist remains a pivotal figure in the history of the LGBTQ rights movement who ensured trans issues weren’t overlooked. Rivera is the only transgender person included in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian.
Quotes
- We were the frontliners. We didn’t take no shit from nobody. We had nothing to lose.
- The movement had put me on the shelf, but they took me down and dusted me off.
- Hell hath no fury like a drag queen scorned.
- We have to do it because we can no longer stay invisible. We have to be visible. We should not be ashamed of who we are. We have to show the world that we are numerous.
- I’m glad I was in the Stonewall riot. I remember when someone threw a Molotov cocktail, I thought: ‘My god, the revolution is here. The revolution is finally here!’
- Before I die, I will see our community given the respect we deserve. I’ll be damned if I’m going to my grave without having the respect this community deserves. I want to go to wherever I go with that in my soul and peacefully say I’ve finally overcome.
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