Rivera, Sylvia (1951-2002)

Sylvia Rivera (born Ray Rivera) was a Puerto Rican drag queen and street hustler who was influential in the visibility of early radical transgender activism. Rivera was best known for her involvement in the [Page 717]Stonewall riots in 1969 and her activism on behalf of gay, lesbian, and transgender street kids and prostitutes.

Sylvia Rivera was born in 1951 and due to a difficult home life began living on the streets of New York City at the age of 10 years old. The events in Rivera's early life on the street are documented in her biography Before Stonewall. When Rivera was 18 years old, she was involved in the infamous Stonewall riots, which began when police tried to crack down on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, where gay people often gathered. According to bystanders and Rivera herself, she was one of the bar clients who “threw the first punch.” The Stonewall riots are often considered to be the beginning of the radical gay liberation movement in New York City and nationwide.

Rivera quickly became a political presence in the radical gay liberation movement due to her involvement in the newly formed Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) and her creation of the Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR). Rivera formed STAR with African American drag queen Marsha Johnson in 1970 in response to exclusionary tactics of the GAA. GAA formed to provide a more political focus than the culturally focused radical organization the New York Gay Liberation Front. Within the GAA, there were many early disputes over the role of transvestites, drag queens, and street kids within the organizations. As part of their involvement in STAR, for several years in the early 1970s, Rivera and Johnson maintained a household, STAR House, which existed to provide housing and community for homeless transvestites, drag queens, and prostitutes. Rivera consistently created visibility for economically and socially marginalized members of the lesbian, gay, and transgender community, including her infamous speech at the 1973 New York City Gay Pride Parade on behalf of imprisoned minorities.

Rivera's work continued long past the 1970s. Variations on STAR House continued until the present day, including Tiffany House in the 1980s and the formation of Transy House in 1994 by Rusty Mae Moore, Chelsea Goodwin, and Julia Murray. Rivera died of liver cancer in 2002, at the age of 51. The Sylvia Rivera Law Project was formed in 2002 by Dean Spade in Rivera's honor. This legal organization focuses explicitly on legal, social, and medical issues for transgender and transsexual individuals