After waiting for two years for a statue of the LGBTQ rights icon and activist, Marsh P Johnson, a group of activists decided to take action. On the morning of August 24th, 2021, they placed Johnson’s statue at the center of Christopher Park, next to the Gay Liberation monument, across the street from the Stonewell Inn. Among this group of activists were Eli Erlick and Jesse Pallotta, the artist who created it. Thanks to them, the city of New York has its first statue of a transgender person, which is also one of the few in the world.
Marsh P Johnson was born as a male named Malcolm Michaels Jr. and knew since a young age she was a woman. At 17, she took a bag of clothes and $15 and moved to NYC, where she felt she could be herself. At first, she lived on the street and had to work as a prostitute. Then she settled in Greenwich Village, became involved in the thriving gay scene, and performed as a drag queen.
Johnson was involved in the Gay Liberation movement and took part in the “Stonewall Riots.” Some claim she even started it. She co-founded with Sylvia Rivera the “Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries” (STAR) organization, a home for gay and trans street kids.
In July of 1992, her body was discovered floating in the Hudson River. She was 46 years old. According to some, she committed suicide due to mental illness, while others say it was a homophobic hate crime.
The statue stands on a pedestal that reads:
“Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson
“History isn’t something you look back at and say
it was inevitable, it happens because people
make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive
and of the moment, but those moments
are cumulative realities.”
Lover of Poetry,
Flowers, space and the color purple.
August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992”
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