Marsha Johnson: The People’s Queen

Marsha P. Johnson (1945–1992) was a transgender woman, drag queen, and outspoken activist for gay rights, most well-known for her prominence in the 1969 Stonewall uprising. Born in New Jersey and assigned male at birth, Johnson’s parents named him Malcolm Michaels. Marsha felt wrong in the gender she was assigned to and felt most at home in herself as a woman. It was not until she graduated from high-school and moved to New York that she began to identify more as a drag queen. She was chastised for this her entire life.

As a woman, Marsha was a devout Christian who spent her life spreading the Gospel and giving back to her community. She fed, clothed, and gave to those needier than she, an impressive feat as her own financial circumstances were unstable. She worked hard throughout her life to end homelessness and serve others in the name of Jesus. She was described as “quick-witted and fast with her blade and tongue, she was known for her ability to rise above the foolish, nonbelievers, and dangerous folks who attempted to harm her or those in the communities she held dear.”1 She worked as a preforming artist and as a sex worker.

Johnson was the transgender pioneer of the Stonewall Riots. In 1969 she was at the Stonewall Inn on Christopher St in New York when a state-sanctioned police raid broke out. The police raided the inn intending to commit violence against the gay community and to enforce biologically assigned gender. The police were targeting drag queens and butch lesbians because of their rejection of the hegemonic gender roles. The residents of the Stonewall Inn were all lined up and gender checks were performed by the police; anyone found to be presenting a gender not in accordance with their designated sex were arrested, beaten, and dragged out into the street. Marsha was outraged by the raid and fought back. She threw down a glass and called out for the freedom to be herself and her right to safety. She started this movement to protect herself and others from homophobic violence. She was a key organizer in the fight against injustice toward the Queer community. Marsha was hated and discriminated against by those seeking to uphold the status quo for being genderqueer, black, and gay. She faced violence and homophobia for most of her life and was made to not feel safe. In 1992, she was murdered in 1992 and her body was thrown into the Hudson River in New York. After a short, half-hearted investigation, police ruled her death a suicide.

Marsha Johnson provided the framework and infrastructure for the advocacy of LGBTQIA+ in our modern world. She was unwilling to be silent in the face of abuse that she and others like her faced on a daily basis. She was not afraid of her gender identity or her sexual orientation. Despite lacking the money for more luxurious drag, she is remembered as the “people’s queen,” a woman who represented the hardships of the LGBTQIA+ community.2

Madeleine Wilk (she/her)

Education major

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