Trigger Warning: Brief of suicide and sexual assault
Marsha P. Johnson, a name that most likely sounds familiar to any queer person reading this, was one of the most prevalent voices of the gay and transgender rights movements in the 60s and 70s. Most accredited for her involvement in the Stonewall Riots, Johnson spearheaded the liberation movement, once in an interview saying:
“As long as gay people don’t have their rights all across America… there is no reason for celebration.”
There is much more to Johnson’s story than her Stonewall resistance, however (though it is an important part). Let’s start from the very beginning.
Marsha was born on the 24th August 1945, exactly eight days before World War II officially ended, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She lived with her mother, Alberta Claiborne, after her parents separated but kept in contact with her father, Malcolm Michaels Sr. From five years old, Johnson started wearing girls’ clothes. She didn’t stop despite her mothers dismay or her peers’ comments, only stopping briefly due to being sexually assaulted.
After graduating high school, Johnson went and started a new life in New York. It was here she named herself Marsha P. (Pay It No Mind) Johnson and started using she/her and dressing feminine full-time. It was difficult as a young, queer, African American, drag queen, and transvestite (what Johnson called herself, as the term transgender was not popularised till after her death) in New York, thus leading her to take on many jobs including sex work and waitressing.
For a brief period however, she actually enlisted in the United States Navy when she was 17. This only lasted part way through her recruitment training however after she was honourably discharged after punching a man who tried to sexually assault her.
In 1969 during the Stonewall Riots is where she is most known from, having memorably shimmied up a lamppost and dropped a brick onto a police car, smashing its windshield.
Reportedly, Johnson and her long-time friend Sylvia Rivera, whom she met when she was 17 and Rivera 11, arrived at Stonewall on Christopher Street at 2am. At this point the riot was well underway after the police barged in and attempted to arrest gay men and drag queens; “The place was already on fire” Johnson said in a later interview about the day.
“The place was already on fire”
Her shining activism didn’t stop after the riots however, she continued to make a name for herself in the gay rights scene. Johnson and Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in 1970.
“An organisation dedicated to sheltering young transgender individuals who were shunned by their families.”
Rivera and Johnson hosted around 15-20 “STAR house kids” at a time, providing as much shelter, food, and amenities as they could. Everyone chipped in though, with each kid needing to either take up begging, theft, or sex work. There was a decent amount of Latino kids in the house who practiced a form of santería* whereby they venerated a version of St Barbara whom they saw as the patron saint of homosexuality and they would pray to her, among other saints, before leaving the house for protection and money-making.
As much as Johnson, Rivera, and the STAR house kids tried, they were eventually evicted after only eight months living in the dilapidated building.
Having been a steering figure in the Stonewall Riots and continuing to be a mother-figure to abandoned queer kids, in the 1970s, Marsha P. was highlighted as a prominent member of the queer rights movement–she even got to ride the lead car of the 1980 Gay Pride Parade in New York.
Her work was not wholly covered in the doom and gloom of unequal rights of gay folk in New York, but also of fun! Johnson was part of a political drag-group and theatre company called the “Hot Peaches,” with notable members such as; Marsha herself, Peggy Shaw, Ned Asta, and Bette Bourne. In this, Johnson was part of Andy Warhol’s “Ladies and Gentlemen” print series in 1975.
By the end of the 70s however, Johnson was having a rough time, namely with the bullet in her back. Once whilst working on the side of the West Side Highway, Johnson was unexpectedly shot by a taxi driver. Although medical professionals attempted to remove the bullet, it was not a success and Johnson would spend the rest of her life with the bullet lodged in her back.
For Johnson, the 80s was not a time to sit still even if the state of New York had now decriminalised homosexuality, now was a time for AIDS advocacy. AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) was, by mid-1984, affecting over 5,000 Americans. Johnson saw this and began regularly visiting AIDS patients and in hospitals and praying for them.
She was also one of the organisers to set up Los Angeles’ first AIDS walk as well as a participant in many AIDS dance-a-thons to raise money.
Throughout all of Johnson’s life however, she struggled with her mental health. Her beautiful dresses and flower-adorned hair were covering her internal battles. She had a series of mental health breakdowns and was in and out of psychiatric hospitals.
Unfortunately, on July 6th 1992, Marsha P. Johnson’s body was found floating in the Hudson River. She had left her friend’s apartment on July 2nd only to never return. Police hastily called her death a suidcide although many were skeptical about this decision and suspected foul play. This was at a time of peak anti-queer violence and hate-crimes in America and this had happened only days after New York’s Pride Parade.
Her case was reopened, but with no new evidence, Johnson’s case remains open and unsolved.
Despite an all too early demise at 46 years old, Marsha P. lived those 46 years brilliantly and shone bright enough to be the light for those around her. She took in young drag queens and queer kids when they had nowhere else to go. She helped rally support and funds for AIDS. She was boisterous, loud, and unabashed being who she was.
As time has passed, many still look to Johnson as a guiding light and a historical figure that is to be looked up to. This has resulted in her being colloquially known as a folk saint, the Saint of Christopher Street, being memorialised by her actions during the Stonewall Riots and her many accomplishments during life.
* Santería (Spanish–Way of the Saints): A syncretic folk religion that fuses Roman Catholic beliefs with Yorùbá beliefs
– Written by Alec Yorke (he/him)
References:
Keehnen, O. (n.d.). Marsha P. Johnson. Legacy Project Chicago.
https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/marsha-p-johnson
Marsha P. Johnson | American drag queen and activist | Britannica. (n.d.).
Www.britannica.com. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marsha-P-Johnson
Palmer, S. (2025, January 5). Marsha P. Johnson | Biography. Biographyhost; S.B. Web
Technology. https://biographyhost.com/p/marsha-p-johnson-biography.html#google_vignette
Rothberg, E. (2022). Marsha P. Johnson. National Women’s History Museum.
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/marsha-p-johnson
Santeria – New World Encyclopedia. (2019). Newworldencyclopedia.org.
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Santeria
STAR House Historical Marker. (2024, October 25). Hmdb.org.
