Even as a child, Marsha P. Johnson loved wearing women’s clothes. Her Christian family reprimanded her, but could not keep Johnson from living her truth.
As an adult, Johnson was always being asked nosy questions about her gender. Eventually, she clapped back, saying the “P.” in her name stood for “pay it no mind.”
Deep in LGBTQ+ advocacy work, Johnson and her friend Sylvia Rivera co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) House in 1970. STAR House provided food and shelter to displaced LGBTQIA+ people, keeping them safe from the streets and police harassment. Modeled after queer matriarchies found in ballroom house culture, STAR House centered community care.
Johnson is often remembered for her iconic involvement in the Stonewall Uprising, standing on the frontlines with nothing but her integrity and a brick. But one year after Stonewall, Johnson and Rivera were told they couldn’t march in New York City’s first Pride Parade because they were trans. They paid their haters no mind and walked in front of the entire parade.
Current legislation is violently targeting trans rights. The thing is, this legislation polices everyone. Enforced gender policing makes it legal for all of our bodies to be scrutinized and criminalized for not fitting into anti-Black standards of “normalcy.” We can only build TRANSformative Black liberated futures if we agree not to police each other in the process.