11/06/2019
KNOW YOUR HERSTORY! 🌈✊🏻
________________________
🖤❤️🧡💛💜💙💚💖
#ShareIt! #StonewallWasARiot! #OurFightIsNOToverYet! #Stonewall50!
THIS IS MARSHA.
About 50 years ago Marsha put on a dress (when that was against the law) and rode the subway to Greenwich Village to go dancing (where that was against the law) with men (when that was illegal). She partied until sometime after 1 am with a bunch of homeless kids, prostitutes, butch lesbians, effete gays and other trans women who just wanted to dance. That was the chief draw of the Stonewall Inn - the dancing.
When the police arrived, as they did nearly every month, those in dresses would be "checked" to see that their genitals matched their owner to the officer's satisfaction. If not, there was a paddy wagon waiting outside. Their pictures would be in the paper for cross dressing. They might horrify their families. They would probably lose their jobs.
When you're out celebrating pride this summer, when you read the news about violence against black and trans people, remember Marsha. The reason any of us can go to a three day festival as casually as we please with whomever we love and celebrate our lives, is because Marsha P. Johnson, an African-American street queen picked up a goddamn shot glass, shattered a mirror in that slum bar, and resisted arrest.
Never forget our lives are easier because of the sacrifices of our black and trans brothers and sisters who are STILL dealing with prejudice and discrimination on a scale the broader gay community hasn't experienced in twenty years or more. Because of people like her we are free, while people just like her are marginalized, brutalized and murdered.
Never forget who you owe your freedom to! Never forget that your Pride was once against the law.
And when the discussions about the reduced police presence at pride come, and when we discuss again and again if our pride parades are still political enough — I want you to remember Marsha's face and ask yourself, who needs the greater protection, support, and solidarity? Who has the power, and who is still struggling for the enforcement of their civil rights?
Marsha was an Icon and a Rolemodel. She was found dead in the Hudson River of NYC on 6 July 1992. She was only 46 years old. The case never got solved, the police spoke about suicide — her friends about murder.
REMEMBER HER.