MARSHA P. JOHNSON

Marsha P. Johnson (24 de agosto de 1945 – 6 de xullo de 1992) foi unha muller transxénero afroamericana, drag queen e activista do movemento de liberación gai. O termo transxénero non se utilizaba habitualmente por aquel entón, e ela describíase coma unha persoa gai, travesti e drag queen. Foi una das activistas máis importantes dos disturbios de Stonewall e unha figura popular no ambiente gai e artístico de Nova York nas décadas de 1960 a 1990. Máis tarde converteuse nunha activista na loita contra o SIDA con ACT UP.

Naceu en Elizabeth (Nova Jersey), e recibiu o nome de Malcolm Michaels, Jr. Era a quinta de sete irmáns dunha familia afroamericana de clase traballadora. Aos cinco anos empezou a usar vestidos, pero parou debido ao acoso doutros nenos, e a unha agresión sexual perpetrada por un rapaz. A mediados da década dos 60, cando rematou a educación secundaria, Marsha foise a vivir a Manhattan cunha bolsa con roupa e quince dólares, e empezou a ser ben coñecida no ambiente drag da cidade.

En Nova York, volveu a usar vestidos e adoptou o nome de Marsha P. Johnson, pero nos anos cincuenta e sesenta, as persoas gais eran perseguidas e criminalizadas. Encontrar emprego era moi difícil, e recorreu ao traballo sexual, que era moi perigoso. Tampouco tiña unha casa, e durmía en moitos sitios diferentes. Máis tarde atopou traballo como camareira e drag queen.

Nunha ocasión, un xuíz preguntoulle a Marsha o que significaba a “P” do seu nome, e ela, chasqueando os dedos, contestou coa súa resposta habitual: “Pay it no mind” (“Non lle deas importancia”), unha frase que ademáis utilizaba sarcásticamente para contestar ás frecuentes preguntas sobre o seu xénero. A él pareceulle gracioso e deixouna ir.

Pouco despois de mudarse a Nova York con 17 anos, coñeceu a Sylvia Rivera, unha rapaza transxénero portorriqueña de 11 anos, a quen lle ensinou a quererse a sí mesma, a maquillarse, a vivir na rúa e a non meterse en problemas. A Marsha gustáballe vestir conxuntos coloridos e divertidos que facía con roupa que atopaba en tendas de caridade e na rúa, e tamén levaba a miúdo coroas de flores.

Na madrugada do 28 de xuño de 1969, a policía fixo unha redada no bar gai Stonewall Inn, e cando empezaron a deter a varias persoas por rachar varias leis discriminatorias, os clientes iniciaron unha revolta. Marsha atopábase cerca do bar, e foi unha das primeiras activistas en defenderse. Hai quen di que tirou un vaso de chopo contra un espello, e hai quen di que se subiu a unha farola e tirou un bolso que contiña un ladrillo contra o parabrisas dun coche da policía, pero está claro que estaba na vangarda. Esta foi a primeira grande revolta das persoas LGBTQIA+ contra os ataques da policía, que galvanizou o movemento; trala sublevación, Marsha uniuse ao Gay Liberation Front e participou na primeira manifestación do Orgullo no primeiro aniversario do levantamento de Stonewall.

Marsha cuestionaba a exclusión da xente trans e da xente LGBTQIA+ de cor do movemento nos seus inicios. A principios da década de 1970, ela e a súa amiga Sylvia Rivera cofundaron a organización STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaires) para protexer aos xoves trans rexeitados polas súas familias que vivían na rúa, e darlles un fogar. A primeira casa STAR foi a parte de atrás dun camión abandoado en Greenwich Village, onde 24 rapaces atoparon refuxio e almorzaban cada mañá grazas a Marsha e Sylvia. Máis tarde mudáronse a un edificio en ruinas sen auga corrente e electricidade que alugaron e tentaron arreglar, pero o grupo foi desafiuzado despois de oito meses, por non poder seguir pagando; pero moitos xa sentiran o impacto de STAR. O movemento de liberación gai era predominantemente branco, de clase media e cisxénero, e en 1973 os organizadores do desfile do orgullo gai tentaron excluír a STAR, afirmando que as drag queens lles estaban dando mala fama; pero elas apareceron e puxéronse a camiñar diante do desfile. Marsha e Sylvia eran unha presencia visible nas marchas a favor da liberación gay e outras accións políticas radicais. 

Unha vez, uns policías tentaron arrestala por levar a cabo traballo sexual, e ela golpeounos cun bolso no que levaba dous ladrillos. Cando o xuíz lle preguntou cal era o motivo polo que estaba facendo traballo sexual, explicou que era para mercar unha lápida para a súa parella, a quen dixo que a policía lle disparara. Aínda que inicialmente foi sentenciada a pasar noventa días no cárcere, o seu avogado convenceu ao xuíz de que o Bellevue Hospital sería máis axeitado.

Durante os anos 70, Marsha empezou a actuar co grupo drag internacional "Hot Peaches". En 1974 foi fotografada por Andy Warhol, como parte da súa serie de polaroids e serigrafías “Damas E Cabaleiros”, que se centraba en drag queens. A moitas delas coñecéraas no Gilded Grape, un bar de mulleres trans e drag queens negras e latinas que estaba cerca do seu estudio, The Factory. Marsha levou a algúns amigos a ver unha serigrafía súa cando se expuxo nunha tenda de Greenwich Village, pero os donos chamáronlle chusma e botárona.

Na década de 1980, Marsha continuou o seu activismo na rúa. En 1987 uniuse a ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) durante a epidemia de SIDA na cidade de Nova York, mentres visitaba e coidaba a amigos terminalmente enfermos no hospital. En 1990 interpretou a canción "Love" mentres levaba un botón de ACT UP, "Silence = Death" na produción de Hot Peaches "The Heat". Ademais, xunto con Rivera na Casa STAR, que continuou existindo en diferentes ubicacións, xuntaba roupa e comida para axudar ás xoves drag queens, adolescentes trans, e outros rapaces gays da rúa, algúns dos cales vivían na súa casa no Lower East Side de Nova York.

Aínda que era moi popular e tiña unha personalidade alegre, experimentou unha vida de pobreza e perigo, pero iso non detivo o seu activismo. A pesar de que tiña moi pouco, era coñecida pola súa xenerosidade e amabilidade. Pensaba que ninguén debería vivir na rúa nin recorrer ao traballo sexual, pero non coñecía outro xeito de sobrevivir. Experimentou algunhas crises de saúde mental, foi detida máis de cen veces e en 1990 contraeu o SIDA. Falou diso públicamente e dixo que agardaba que a xente non lle tivera medo ás persoas que teñen esta enfermidade.

En 1992, Nova York sufriu unha epidemia de agresións a homosexuais con 1.300 denuncias, o 18% das cales foron presuntamente perpetradas pola policía, e organizáronse marchas como resposta, nas que participou Marsha para pedir xustiza. O 4 de xullo de 1992, o seu corpo foi atopado flotando no río Hudson, non lonxe do peirao do West Village, pouco despois da Marcha do Orgullo. A policía considerou a súa morte un suicidio. Non obstante os seus amigos e seguidores dixeron que non tiña tendencias suicidas, observaron que tiña unha grande ferida na parte de atrás da cabeza, e varias testemuñas afirmaron que fora acosada por uns matóns cerca de onde se atopou o seu corpo. Os intentos para que a policía investigase a súa morte foron infructuosos. Centos de persoas acudiron ao seu funeral. Despois dunha forte campaña dirixida pola activista Mariah López, en novembro de 2012 o departamento de policía de Nova York reabriu o caso coma un posible homicidio. 

Texto actualizado: 28/06/2024

Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 - July 6, 1992) was an African-American transgender woman, drag queen and activist of the gay liberation movement. The term transgender was not commonly used at the time, and she described herself as a gay person, transvestite and drag queen. She was one of the most important activists of the Stonewall riots and a popular figure in the gay and artistic atmosphere of New York in the 1960s to 1990s. Later she became an activist in the fight against AIDS with ACT UP.

She was born in Elizabeth (New Jersey), and received the name of Malcolm Michaels, Jr. She was the fifth of seven siblings in a working-class African-American family. At the age of five she started wearing dresses, but stopped due to bullying from other children, and a sexual assault by a boy. In the mid-1960s, when she finished high school, Marsha moved to Manhattan with a bag of clothes and fifteen dollars, and became well known in the city's drag scene.

In New York, she went back to wearing dresses and adopted the name Marsha P. Johnson, but in the 1950s and 1960s, gay people were persecuted and criminalized. Finding work was very difficult, and she resorted to sex work, which was very dangerous. She also didn't have a home, and slept in many different places. She later found work as a waitress and drag queen.

On one occasion, a judge asked Marsha what the "P" of her name meant, and she, snapping her fingers, answered with her usual response: "Pay it no mind", a phrase that she used sarcastically to answer frequently asked questions about her gender. He thought it was funny and he let her go.

Shortly after moving to New York at age 17, she met Sylvia Rivera, an 11-year-old Puerto Rican transgender girl, whom she taught to love herself, how to apply makeup, how to live on the streets, and  to stay out of trouble. Marsha liked to wear colorful and fun outfits that she made from clothes she found in charity shops and on the street, and she also often wore flower crowns.

In the early morning of June 28, 1969, the police raided the Stonewall Inn gay bar, and when they started arresting several people for breaking various discriminatory laws, the customers started a riot. Marsha was near the bar, and she was one of the first activists to defend herself. Some say she threw a shot glass at a mirror, and some say she climbed a lamppost and threw a bag containing a brick at the windshield of a police car, but it is clear that she was at the vanguard. This was the first major revolt of LGBTQIA+ people against police attacks, which galvanized the movement; after the uprising, Marsha joined the Gay Liberation Front and she participated in the first Pride demonstration on the first anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.

Marsha questioned the exclusion of trans people and LGBTQIA+ people of color from the movement in its early days. In the early 1970s, she and her friend Sylvia Rivera co-founded the organization STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaires) to protect trans youth rejected by their families who lived on the streets, and give them a home. The first STAR house was the back of an abandoned truck in Greenwich Village, where 24 kids found shelter and had breakfast every morning thanks to Marsha and Sylvia. They later moved to a dilapidated building without running water and electricity that they rented and tried to fix up, but the group was evicted after eight months, because they couldn't keep paying; but many had already felt the impact of STAR. The gay liberation movement was predominantly white, middle-class, and cisgender, and in 1973 the organizers of the gay pride parade tried to exclude STAR, claiming that drag queens were giving them a bad name; but they appeared and began to walk in front of the parade. Marsha and Sylvia were a visible presence at gay liberation marches and other radical political actions.

Once, some policemen tried to arrest her for performing sex work, and she hit them with a bag containing two bricks. When the judge asked her why he was doing sex work, she explained that it was to buy a tombstone for her partner, who she said had been shot by the police. Although she was initially sentenced to spend ninety days in jail, her lawyer convinced the judge that Bellevue Hospital would be more appropriate.

During the 70s, Marsha began performing with the international drag group "Hot Peaches". In 1974 she was photographed by Andy Warhol, as part of his series of polaroids and screen prints "Ladies and Gentlemen", which focused on drag queens. He had met many of them at the Gilded Grape, a bar for trans women and black and Latina drag queens that was near his studio, The Factory. Marsha took some friends to see a screen print of hers when it was displayed in a store in Greenwich Village, but the owners called her riffraff and threw her out.

In the 1980s, Marsha continued her activism on the street. In 1987 she joined ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) during the AIDS epidemic in New York City, while visiting and caring for terminally ill friends in the hospital. In 1990 she performed the song "Love" while wearing an ACT UP button, "Silence = Death" in the Hot Peaches production "The Heat". In addition, along with Rivera at the STAR House, that continued existing in different locations, she collected clothes and food to help young drag queens, trans teenagers, and other gay street kids, some of whom lived at her home in the Lower East Side of New York.

Although she was very popular and had a cheerful personality, she experienced a life of poverty and danger, but that did not stop her activism. Although she had very little, she was known for her generosity and kindness. She thought no one should live on the streets or resort to sex work, but she didn't know any other way to survive. She experienced some mental health crises, she was arrested more than a hundred times and in 1990 she contracted AIDS. She spoke about it publicly and said he hoped people would not be afraid of those who have this disease.

In 1992, New York suffered an epidemic of assaults on homosexuals with 1,300 reports, 18% of which were allegedly perpetrated by the police, and marches were organized in response, in which Marsha participated to demand justice. On July 4, 1992, her body was found floating on the Hudson River, not far from the West Village pier, shortly after the Pride Parade. The police considered that her death was a suicide. However, her friends and followers said she had no suicidal tendencies, they observed that she had a great wound on the back of the head, and several witnesses claimed that she had been harassed by thugs near where her body was found. The attempts to get the police to investigate her death were fruitless. Hundreds of people showed up to her funeral. After a strong campaign led by activist Mariah López, in November 2012 the New York police department reopened the case as a possible homicide. 

Updated text: 28/06/2024