2026 NYC Pride Guide - Magazine - Page 25
Pride would not exist as it does today without the contributions of Marsha and other trans
and non-binary people of color. As our trans and non-binary siblings continue to face hateful
attacks at every level of government, we recall their trailblazing leadership in the history of this
movement - and center their fight in the broader fight for LGBTQIA+ liberation.
House of Detention to free Angela Davis
THE BIRTH OF A
during an authoritarian regime or helping
poor people get transport to see the AIDS
MOVEMENT
The 1969 Stonewall Rebellion quilt in Washington, DC, she took solidarity
gave birth to the Pride March in fighting for liberation for all.
In 1982, Grand Marshal Ed Murphy flew
Marsha out from Los Angeles to share his
car in the NYC Pride March, unofficially
recognizing Marsha’s decades of work and
impact. Marsha would go on to reflect on
the honor as a strange experience, because
we celebrate today. While
MAKING HISTORY AT THE MARCH she couldn’t help but think of everyone else
Marsha Pay-it-No-Mind
Though Marsha’s presence in the early marching behind her.
Johnson has said it herself
that she never threw anything LGBTQIA+ movement is indisputable, she
the night the riots broke out, was not always celebrated in the Christo- Eventually Marsha became a volunteer reher presence in the early civil rights move- pher Street Liberation Day Parade, evolving cruiter for Heritage of Pride. In 1992, after
into what we know today as the NYC Pride Marsha’s death, Heritage of Pride noted
ment is indisputable.
March. In 1973, at a time when she and her “We knew we had won the community
As early as 1962, Marsha was fighting for mentee Sylvia Rivera were feeling left be- when Marsha came to Volunteer”.
the most marginalized in our community, hind by the movement, they infamously
protecting children on the pier thrown out cut in front of 1973 Grand Marshal John Paul In 2019, she was honored with a post morby their families and helping steer them Hudson. Hudson understood the move and tem Grand Marshalship. This year, we reflect
away from illegal sex work. And through- did not stop the march. Marsha and Sylvia on that historic moment when Marsha cut
out the 1970s, she stood at the forefront in marched down 7th Avenue with a banner into the march, to remind the world that we
the fight for LGBTQIA+ liberation; whether that read STAR – Street Transvestite Action are all in this together.
Revolutionaries).
she was fighting outside the Women’s
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