Poet and performance artist Linda LaBeija read a piece about Marsha P. Johnson that she wrote for the occasion.
PHOTO ESSAY BY DONNA ACETO | Twenty-five years ago this summer, Marsha P. Johnson, a trans icon whose central role in the Stonewall Rebellion was chronicled in historian David Carter’s definitive 2004 book about the 1969 uprising, was remembered in a July 27 memorial on the Christopher Street Pier. Johnson, who with friend and fellow activist Sylvia Rivera, founded STAR, the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, was found dead in the Hudson River on July 6, 1992, six days after last being seen at that year’s Pride festivities. A founding member of the post-Stonewall Gay Liberation Front, Johnson, who was 46, was later a member of ACT UP, and also worked with Andy Warhol and the performance troupe Hot Peaches.
LaLa Zannell, a community organizer at the Anti-Violence Project.
The memorial was organized by Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the Translatin@ Network, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, Make the Road New York, the New York City Anti-Violence Project, Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), Destination Tomorrow, and City Councilmember Corey Johnson’s office.
Longtime trans activist Renée Imperato of SAGE.
Cecilia Gentili, assistant director of policy at Gay Men’s Health Crisis, hosted the memorial service.
GMHC CEO Kelsey Louie.
