@anenlighteningellipsis / anenlighteningellipsis.tumblr.com
Storme
photographed by Avery Willard
Stormé DeLarverie (December 24, 1920 – May 24, 2014) was a butch lesbian whose purported scuffle with police, many eyewitnesses recount, was the defining moment that incited the Stonewall riots, spurring the crowd to action.
This pride month let’s remember those who came before us, and remember our community’s history. Remember the AIDS crisis, remember the rainbow flag, remember stonewall. Remember black trans women and what they did for us.
What percentage of the crowd was Hispanic or black?
At least 70%. The Spanish group was the Delightful Ladies. The black group was the Blackwell. There were no leather queens there. There were leather bars for leather people. The majority of people at Stonewall were either drag queens or gay men of color. You could never go to Julius [a nearby bar] unless you were extremely conservative and well dressed. We were never allowed there.
What did the cops do to you once you were busted?
In those days, if you were busted, the first thing they did was shave your head. They’d crop your hair right off. It was to humiliate you.
Why did you decide to paint and dress the statues?
Those sculptures are supposedly there to commemorate the Stonewall riots, but there isn’t a trace of the actual riots in them. They’re a slap across the face to the Black and Latina trans women who got whacked with batons and shoved into police vans, and still had the guts to continue to lead the fight for LGBTQ liberation. I mean, the people who modeled for the sculptures weren’t even at the riots! That’s just a straight-up insult. It’s also important to note that the Mildred Andrews Fund paid a (presumably) straight and cis white man $90,000 to depict gay people. It’s no wonder that the sculptures are so impassive and tone-deaf.
We painted them because Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major, Storme DeLarverie and all the other Black and Brown people who led the movement deserve credit for their courage and strength. What we did was rectification, not vandalism. Those statues are bronze (brown) underneath the layer of white paint — the symbolism behind that is infuriating. I know that some people are going to be angry, but I’m not concerned with preserving bullshit art. I’m angry about the whitewashing of LGBTQ history.
Marsha P. Johnson, the hero. Not some white man.
Honestly this film is a slap in the face to the people who took part in the riots, who fought in the streets for your right to be treated like a human being. It’s an insult to the LGBT community, to trans people, to drag queens, to women and people of color. Hollywood has once again taken our moment of major historical significance and told us that the only way people will care is if a white man is the hero, and that the only way change really happens is if a white man fights for it.
New York City: Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, veterans of the Stonewall Rebellion and founders of STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), march in the 1973 Pride Parade.
Marsha P. Johnson
Pronouns: She/her
