How Did Marsha P Johnson Change The Lgbtqia Liberation Movement

The Kindest Heart

Marsha P Johnson in her drag makeup and he forward-thinking attitude changed the LGBTQIA liberation movement and helped gain rights for thousands of LGBTQ people for years to come. Marsha p johnson was a trans icon. She moved to NYC when she was very young working as a sex worker to get money and she was very involved in the queer scene and the gay rights liberation. She started a program called S.T.A.R. which stands for the street transvestite action revolutionaries she and her other friend started this program because they thought that the other groups did not have the same beliefs. She was supposedly the first person to start rioting during the stonewall riots. She also was a really popular drag queen that started drag.

No one understood what a “transvestite” meant but they didn’t like how a male person would dress femininely in dresses and wore makeup but Marsha embraced people like that. I mean she was one of them. The law was also against many LGBT people. They would arrest people because of the “Masquerade law” which was a law taken out of context and they would arrest transgender women for wearing dresses. Her being a drag queen that performed on stonewall, she got mad that it was always being raided so one night she stood up and threw a shot glass at a mirror and yelled “‘I got my civil rights!’ That moment became known as ‘the Shot Glass that was Heard Around the World’”(Mackenzie Wolf). This started the stonewall riots which was a turning point for the whole gay liberation movement. She was a trendsetter for “Marsha was extremely successful and toured the world as a successful drag queen with the Hot Peaches” (Marsha p. Johnson memorial). Even though drag queens were seen as something unheard of and strange she was a pioneer in pushing drag races she was in many shows and was successful. She didn't care what people thought of her and was always standing up for what she believed in even though people thought it was

STAR provided services including shelter to homeless LGBTQ people”(Marsha P. Johnson memorial). The star house was a home where just the homeless in general could get a place to live and get some food and company Marsha worked so hard to buy the building with her friend Sylvia Rivera who was also a trans drag queen in NYC fighting for LGBT rights. They thought that all the other LGBT movements and programs were for certain specific people and so they started STAR which stands for the street transvestite action revolutionaries. The star program also thoughts street smarts, because most of them lived or were living in the dangerous streets of new york city, and some of them, were sex workers so she taught them how to stay safe which helped a lot of people who didn't know what to do. “Although Marsha struggled with mental illness, she had a profound way of putting others’ needs before her own”(Marsha P. Johnson memorial). Even when she didn't have much money and was scraping the bottom of the barrel to keep housing these people she still did. She didn't have to but out of the kindness of her heart, she thought that everyone deserves a chance. Which also leads to her helping through the AIDS