Sylvia Rivera
Sylvia Rae Rivera (July 2, 1951 – February 19, 2002) was an American gay, transgender and civil rights activist[4][5] and drag queen.[1][6][7]
Sylvia Rivera | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ray Rivera[1] July 2, 1951 |
| Died | February 19, 2002 (aged 50) New York, New York, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Liver cancer |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Gay liberation[2] and Transgender activist, advocate for the homeless.[3] |
Rivera was a founding member of both the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance. With her close friend Marsha P. Johnson, Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens and trans women of color.[8]
Life
changeRivera was born on July 2, 1951 as Ray Rivera. As a child she found a growing interest in makeup.[9] By grade 4 she was wearing makeup to school. Lacking the support she needed from her family, by age 10, her grandmother disapproved and put her out on the street. Rivera became a child sex worker in Times Square. [10] Later on in her life, Rivera took an interest in human rights, specifically race and gender/sexual orientation. She created the organization STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) with her best friend, Marsha P. Johnson. [10] But not too long after, Johnson was found dead, floating in the Hudson River.[11] Rivera was devastated, and she even attempted suicide once. In the end, she died of liver cancer in 2002.
References
change- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Rivera, Sylvia, "Queens In Exile, The Forgotten Ones" in Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries: Survival, Revolt, and Queer Antagonist Struggle. Untorelli Press, 2013.
- ↑ Dunlap, David W. (February 20, 2002). Sylvia Rivera, 50, Figure in Birth of the Gay Liberation Movement. New York Times
- ↑ Randy Wicker Interviews Sylvia Rivera on the Pier. Event occurs at Repeatedly throughout interview. September 21, 1995. Accessed July 24, 2015.
- ↑ Randy Wicker Interviews Sylvia Rivera on the Pier. Event occurs at 14:17. September 21, 1995. Accessed July 24, 2015.
- ↑ "21 Transgender People Who Influenced American Culture". Time Magazine.
- ↑ Leslie Feinberg (September 24, 2006). Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. Workers World Party. "Stonewall combatants Sylvia Rivera and Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson... Both were self-identified drag queens."
- ↑ Sylvia Rivera Reflects on the Spirit of Marsha P Johnson. Event occurs at 1:27. September 21, 1995. Accessed July 24, 2015.
- ↑ Marsha P. Johnson died in 1992. In 2001, Rivera "resurrected" the group, renaming it "Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries." SoundPortraits (July 4, 2001). Update on Remembering Stonewall. Archived 2013-07-02 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "Workers World July 2, 1998: Sylvia Rivera on the Stonewall rebellion". www.workers.org. Archived from the original on March 5, 2019. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "A Forgotten Latina Trailblazer: LGBT Activist Sylvia Rivera". NBC News.
- ↑ "VIDEO: The Transgender Heroines Who Started a Revolution: Video Series Explores Activists' Hidden History – and a Possible Murder". PEOPLE.com.
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