28 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | VIEWS
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ISSUE 314 |
AUGUST, 2020
Stonewall was a drag BY BEN WILLIAMS
According
to Erica Kay Webster, one of the last remaining trans persons who was at the Stonewall Uprising in 1969, “We were all labeled Drag Queens.” Three “drag queens,” who later became identified as transgender women, are Yvonne Ritter, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. All three are strongly associated with the Stonewall Uprising that took place the last weekend of June. Although these individuals had a role in the events of that night, so did hundreds of other gay men, lesbians, and transgender people of all backgrounds. Ritter was living at home in Brooklyn — known to her family as Butch — when she went to the Stonewall Inn to celebrate turning 18 on June 27, 1969. Coincidentally, also celebrating a birthday that day was an eccentric African American street person, Johnson, who turned 25 years old that day. Johnson was one of the city’s best known drag queens and street personality in the village. Once, appearing in court for prostitution, the judge asked her, “What does the ‘P’ stand for?”, and Johnson gave her customary response — “Pay it No Mind.” This phrase became her trademark for the rest of her life. Johnson, who suffered from schizophrenia, had a close friend — if not her closest — Rivera, who would turn 18 years on July 2. Shortly after midnight, the sixth precinct police raided
the Stonewall Inn and Ritter said she was “scared to death.” She was being arrested for being in drag, which was illegal in New York. Taken out of the bar and into a paddy wagon, she thought at the time, “’This isn’t happening.” Ritter was pushed in the police van which had “already more people than could fit.” When
Ritter pleaded, “Please, it’s my birthday, I’m just about to graduate from high school, I’m only 18,” and surprisingly the cop let her go. Ritter ran for the subway and all the way home she was “scared to death that my father would see me on the television news in my mother’s dress.” For the next couple of
1961 and hustled to survive on 42nd Street. “The early ’60s was not a good time for drag queens, effeminate boys or boys that wore makeup like we did. Back then we were beat up by the police, by everybody. I didn’t really come out as a drag queen until the late ’60s. I remember the first time I got arrested, I wasn’t
Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera at the 1973 New York City Gay Pride Parade
the police once again opened the doors to shove in more drag queens, Ritter took the opportunity to “skip out.” Ritter didn’t get far in her black evening gown and black fish net stockings and black pumps before being spotted by a young policeman. The cop looked at Ritter and said, “Hey, you!” and detained her.
days Ritter kept watching to see if there was anything on the news about the riot, but “there wasn’t and I graduated from high school without my parents ever finding out where I’d gone to celebrate my birthday.” Rivera’s story was completely different from Ritter’s. She left home at age 10 in
even in full drag. I was walking down the street and the cops just snatched me.” Where Sylvia Rivera was on the night of June 27 is challenged by several different accounts told by her over time and by eyewitnesses of the event. No doubt she was at Stonewall but whether it was the first night or the second
