Stormé Delarvarie
Stormé DeLarverie, a proud Black butch lesbian, is known as one of the sparks that ignited the Stonewall uprising. She toured as the MC of the Jewel Box Revue, North America’s first racially integrated drag revue. Bouncer and Bodyguard, she served as a volunteer street patrol worker in her community for decades, known as the "guardian of lesbians in the Village."
She also performed at benefits for women and children sheltering from violence. When asked about her work, she is quoted as saying “Somebody has to care. People say, 'Why do you still do that?' I said, 'It's very simple. If people didn't care about me when I was growing up, with my mother being black, raised in the south.' I said, 'I wouldn't be here.'"
Marsha p. johnson
The “P” in “Marsha P. Johnson stands for “Pay it No Mind.” Another key participant in the Stonewall uprising, Marsha is said to have thrown, “the shot glass heard ‘round the world.” She started S.T.A.R, one of the first safe spaces for homeless Transgender youth.
Marsha died at 46 under mysterious circumstances, and her death was ruled a suicide. In 2012, the investigation into her death was reopened, and the cause of her death is now considered “undetermined.
“I don’t think they do a good investigation on a gay murder. They think, ‘Oh, that is one more gone.’ When you gay, it takes forever.” - Marsha P. Johnson
Gladys A. bentley
Gladys Alberta Bentley was an American blues musician (singer, entertainer, and pianist) active during the Harlem Renaissance. She dressed in men’s clothes and sang raunchy lyrics to popular music, sometimes backed up by a chorus of drag queens.
Bentley was an open lesbian early in her career, but late in life claimed to have been “cured” by taking “female hormones” during the repressive McCarthy Era. Psychiatrists described Bentley’s presentation as “extreme social maladjustment.”
She is quoted in Ebony magazine as saying, “It seems I was born different. At least, I always thought I was.”