Marsha P. Johnson: Activist, Icon, and the Heart of Stonewall

When you think of the Stonewall Uprising, the 1969 rebellion at a New York City gay bar that sparked the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. Also known as the Stonewall Riots, it was not just a protest—it was a revolution led by people society had pushed to the edges. At the front of that fight was Marsha P. Johnson, a Black transgender activist, drag performer, and self-declared street queen who refused to be silenced. She didn’t wait for permission to exist—she demanded space, and she built it with her fists, her voice, and her heart.

Marsha wasn’t just present at Stonewall—she was one of the first to throw a bottle, one of the loudest to chant, and one of the few who stayed after the police left to organize the next day. Alongside Sylvia Rivera, she co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a grassroots group that housed and supported homeless transgender youth and sex workers when no one else would. This wasn’t activism for headlines—it was survival work. STAR’s shelter, run out of a trailer and fueled by donations and sheer grit, became a lifeline for people abandoned by families, churches, and the state. Marsha’s life reminds us that LGBTQ+ rights didn’t come from polite requests. They came from people who had nothing left to lose.

Her story didn’t end with Stonewall. She fought for visibility in a movement that often ignored trans women, especially those of color. She was arrested for protesting police violence. She spoke at rallies, even when they didn’t want to hear her. And when she died in 1992, the official story called it suicide. But her friends, her community, knew better. They demanded answers. Today, her name is on streets, schools, and memorials—but her real legacy is in the countless trans people still fighting for shelter, safety, and respect. Marsha didn’t just change history. She made it possible for others to keep fighting.

What you’ll find in the posts below isn’t just a list of articles—it’s a map of the world Marsha fought for. From police raids on gay bars to the erasure of lesbian history, from Victorian myths about sexuality to the legal battles still raging today, each piece connects to the same truth: freedom isn’t given. It’s taken. And Marsha P. Johnson was one of the ones who took it first.