Marsha “Pay No Mind” Johnson was an activist, performer, model, sex worker (for which she was frequently arrested), and mother figure to many young trans women in New York during her lifetime. She was such a well known face that she posed for Andy Warhol, which she felt was a clear indication of her fame.
Johnson was a trans woman of colour and amongst the first to physically resist the police in the Stonewall Riots. On the night June 28, 1969 police in Greenwich Village raided The Stonewall Inn. The Inn was run by the Mafia, and was well known for being a gay bar. In a documentary about her life Pay It No Mind – The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson David Carter says “The story that Robin Souza told me was that Marsha Johnson said “I got my civil rights” and then threw a shot-glass into a mirror – and that started the riots. In Gay Activists Alliance this became known as the shot-glass that was heard around the world.”
The Stonewall Riots became the event that ignited transgender rights and activism. Marsha P. Johnson was heavily involved in the fight, as were many other fellow activists and supporters. Johnson became involved with the Gay Liberation Front who, unlike some other gay rights organisations were not embarassed to be associated with people who were transgender or transvestites.
On June 28, 1970 the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots were marked with Christopher Street Liberation Day. This was the first Gay Pride march in U.S. history, covering the 51 blocks to Central Park. Now Gay Pride marches are held annually around the world.
Around 1978 they tried to ban transgender/transvestites from the gay pride parade. Johnson and Rivera went ahead of the first banner and so it looked like they were opening the parade. After this they had to be included and Johnson was asked to ride in the Stonewall car at a later parade.
In the 1970’s Johnson and her close friend Sylvia Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR). They worked as a transgender rights group and created what is thought of as the first refuge for young drag queens, trans women and other street kids living near the Christopher Street docks. Both Johnson and Rivera acted as mothers to the teenagers who lived in the STAR house. She didn’t want the teenagers to have to experience homelessness and hustling to survive like she had.
Johnson died under mysterious circumstances after the Gay Pride march in 1992. She was found in the Hudson river. Witnesses claimed that they had seen her being harrassed there earlier in the day but due to the fact that she was a trans woman of colour, the police did not investigate.