Sylvia Rivera
Sylvia Rivera (born July 2, 1951 in New York City ; died February 19, 2002 there ) was an American activist for gay and transgender rights. She helped found groundbreaking LGBT organizations such as the Gay Liberation Front in the 1970s , and worked with Marsha P. Johnson for the rights of homeless young drag queens and trans people.
Life
Rivera was born Ray Rivera Mendoza in New York into a family of Venezuelan and Puerto Rican descent. She was orphaned as a child. She started wearing makeup in elementary school. As a result, she was rejected by her grandmother in 1961 at the age of ten and was henceforth homeless. She made money as a prostitute and was taken in by a New York drag queen community. Like other drag queens and hustlers, she was often arrested or a victim of police violence.
She is considered an important figure in the Stonewall riots . In 1969 Rivera frequented the Stonewall Inn. Along with Marsha P. Johnson, Rivera was among the first to oppose the raid on the establishment. Rivera reportedly threw a bottle at a policeman after being hit by his baton; this led to the uprising.
With Johnson, Rivera founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in 1970 to support homeless drag queens and trans people. The club began in New York, but soon had branches in other cities. Rivera and Johnson earned money for the association through prostitution to financially support young homeless people and thus save them from prostitution. Rivera worked with various groups such as B. the Gay Liberation Front, the Puerto Rican separatists Young Lords and the African American Black Panthers .
Rivera repeatedly came into conflict with the mainstream LGBT movement. Rivera was involved with the Gay Activist Alliance , but withdrew in frustration when it deliberately decided against defending transgender rights. At the 1973 New York Pride Parade, Rivera gave a speech in Washington Square accusing gays and lesbians of showing too little solidarity with trans people. During her speech, members of the Lesbian Feminist Liberation group distributed flyers depicting drag queens as misogynistic.
In the late 1970s, Rivera was homeless again. In 1997 she began to live in a transgender collective, supported young trans people again and resumed the STAR 2000 association. In 2002 she died of liver cancer.
Appreciation
The intersection of Hudson Street and Christopher Street in New York also bears the name Sylvia Rivera Way in her memory .
The Sylvia Rivera Law Project advocates legal support for low-income drag queens and trans people of color .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Sylvia Rivera (1951-2002) . In: Revolutionary Women: A Book of Stencils . PM Press, Oakland, CA 2010, ISBN 978-1-60486-466-3 , pp. 90 ff .
- ↑ a b c The Unsung Heroines of Stonewall: Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera - Femmes Fatales. Retrieved July 29, 2017 (American English).
- ↑ a b Leslie Feinberg / Sylvia Rivera: 'I'm glad I was in the Stonewall riot'. In: Workers World. July 2, 1997. Retrieved July 29, 2017 .
- ↑ Sylvia Rivera- “Y'all better quiet down”, 1973 Gay Pride March Rally NYC Washington Square Park. (No longer available online.) Vimeo, formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 29, 2017 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Hagen Blix: Sylvia Rivera - Outcast Stonewall Veteran | Unique. Unique, accessed January 27, 2018 .
- ^ Salih Alexander Wolter: Queer and (anti) capitalism . 1st edition. Butterfly Verlag, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 3-89657-061-7 .
- ↑ SRLP (Sylvia Rivera Law Project). Retrieved July 29, 2017 (American English).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rivera, Sylvia |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rivera Mendoza, Ray (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American activist for gay and transgender rights |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 2nd July 1951 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 19, 2002 |
| Place of death | New York City |