Marsha P Johnson

We as a nation, in general, like to forget traumatic or bad pasts, and internalized racism and homophobia always will always show up in our life, just because of how we were raised.  This blog post will talk about Marsha P Johnson, a black transgender woman, who was the instigator of the Stonewall riots.  She was born as Malcolm Michaels Jr and had a rough childhood because of her Catholic family.   She grew up with a hard adult life as well but being a drag queen brought her joy.  Marsha is recognized as the instigator of the Stonewall riots because on the night the police invaded and arrested the LGBT+ people at the Stonewall Inn, she was one of the first to fight back.  Throuought the rest of her life, she was an advocate for LGBT activism, but people do not like to give her credit because she is a black trans woman.  Marsha was not mentioned in the documentary we watched in class when they went over the Stonewall riots.  People of color were often overlooked in the history of LGBT activism. She died in 1992, found floating in the Hudson River.  The police say she killed herself, however, there were never any reports of her being suicidal.  This leads to the suspicion that someone may have killed her out of a hate crime.  Marsha P Johnson deserves the recognition of being one of the instigators of the Stonewall Riots.