Sylvia Rivera, 1951-2002

Transgender rights activist, a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front, and the co-founder of STAR.

Born as Ray Rivera in NYC to parents of Venezuelan and Puerto Rican descent. Her father abandoned the family soon after she was born, and she became an orphan at the age of 3 after her mother committed suicide. Afterward, Rivera was raised by her grandmother, who disapproved of her feminine behavior. Bullied both at home and school, 11 years old Rivera left her grandmother’s house to live on the streets, where she worked as a child prostitute. A local community of drag queens took her under their protection and gave her the name “Sylvia”.
 
At 18, after the Stonewall riots, Rivera joined the Gay Activists Alliance, where she fought for gay rights and especially for the inclusion of drag queens in the LGBT community. Together with Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) to support homeless queer youth. Her focus as a gay liberation advocate was on the rights of people of color, homeless youth, and gay prisoners. She was also a loud supporter of the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act in New York – a law that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, education, housing, credit, public accommodations, and the exercise of civil rights.
 
In 1973, Rivera and Johnson were banned from a gay rights rally because “drag queens giving the community a bad name”. Rivera burst onto the stage and made a speech in which she criticized the gay community for ignoring trans people and marginalizing the already repressed. After the rally, she had a breakdown, and she attempted suicide. She was found and saved, disbanded STAR, and left activism for almost 20 years. The death of Marsha P. Johnson in 1992 had a significant impact on her, returning to substance abuse and living on the streets.
 
But once again, Rivera was managed to rehabilitate herself and resumed her political activity. She worked at the food pantry of the Metropolitan Community Church of New York, gave speeches promoting Trans rights, and in 2000, she traveled to Italy for the Millennium March, where she was announced as the “mother of all gay people.” In 2001, Rivera renewed STAR as a political organization, which fought for trans-inclusive and promoted the NYC Transgender Rights Bill. Even on her deathbed, she kept on fighting for the inclusion of trans and gender-nonconforming people. She died from liver cancer at the age of 51.
 

More Interesting Anecdotes:

• Though Rivera insists she was one of the leading figures of the Stonewall riots, most witnesses claim that she wasn’t at the bar when the uprising sparked.
• She refused to label her identity, referring herself sometimes as a gay man, a gay girl, or a drag queen. Mostly she identified herself simply as Sylvia.
• The MCC New York’s queer youth shelter is named “Sylvia’s Place” in her honor.
• The NYC based legal aid organization “Sylvia Rivera Law Project” is named in her honor.
• The corner of Christopher and Hudson Streets in the West Village in NYC was renamed “Sylvia Rivera Way” in her honor in 2005.
• An off-Broadway musical “Sylvia So Far” based upon her life was on stage between 2007-2008.