Sylvia Rivera

What do you do when your rights are suppressed? When you are violently pushed around for being gay? For being a transwoman? Why darling, you throw a Molotov cocktail during the Stonewall Riots in 1969.

Sylvia Rivera was born in 1951 in New York City to parents of Puerto Rican and Venezuelan descent. In 1961, outcast from her family, she began living on the street while supporting herself as a sex worker. These early struggles shaped her understanding of activism and, alongside her best friend Marsha P. Johnson, she co-founded STAR (Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries) in 1970 and became a notable member of the Gay Liberation Front.

Sylvia believed in fighting not just for the rights of gay and trans individuals but also for racial and economic justice. In her famous “y’all better quiet down” speech given in 1973, Sylvia pointed out the disparities within the gay rights movement and the exclusion of transmen, transwomen, and drag queens: “I have had my nose broken. I have been thrown in jail. I have lost my job. I have lost my apartment for gay liberation and you all treat me this way?”.

Sylvia had her share of struggles – from substance abuse to mental illness – but never stopped being an activist. She continued her work with STAR and fought for the rights of transgender people and drag queens, pushing for a New York City Transgender Rights Bill until her death in 2002.

We will never forget Sylvia, her fight for the queer community, or her insistence that intersectionality be part of the conversation. Her legacy lives on through The Sylvia Rivera Law Project, founded in 2002, which fights for the rights of those with low income, or people of colour who are trans, intersex, and gender non-conforming.