#sylviarivera

As we celebrate Pride Month, let's remember to celebrate the activists who gave so much of themselves for our liberation.

Flashing back this Friday to Gay Pride parade in NYC 1994. It commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall roots in 1969. The Gay Games were also being held. It was a busy time in the city. Attending the parade, I saw many sights and snapped a few pictures. Imagine if smartphones were around then... Kinda glad they weren't. Anywho, I was lucky enough to capture the late gay, transgender activist Sylvia Rivera. She was being interviewed by an @nbc journalist. (If reused, please credit) #sylviarivera #myphoto #gaypride #transpride #1994 #newyorkcity #nyc #prideparade #1990s #itwasthe90s #gay #transgender #gayhistory #vintagenyc #fbf #gayicon https://www.instagram.com/p/CQjefXWhp2g/?utm_medium=tumblr

Starting off Pride month with a somber, sobering reminder of just WHY speaking up and doing your part to enact change matters so much. Why realizing privilege is important and why it’s no longer enough to not be racist, but why it’s imperative to be anti-racist. Why admitting we’ve all made mistakes and not spoken up when we needed to is wrong and why we’ll do better going forward. Why people like #MarshaPJohnson and #SylviaRivera and countless others who fought for years for the LGBTQ+ community and gave so much so that we could have the rights we do today is worth celebrating. We should all use this time to educate ourselves and others, donate, learn, and speak up whenever we can. We have so much work to do to see the change we all so desperately seek. And to our black brothers and sisters: we stand with you and will do whatever we can for however long it takes. #blacklivesmatter (at Tennessee) https://www.instagram.com/p/CA6eMtIj3gD/?igshid=1pxen62x8ym1n

Despite the official Pride parade being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Reclaim Pride decided that it was essential to march this year in support of the Black-led uprising against racist police killings. This year’s protest was proclaimed the “Queer Liberation March for Black Lives and Against Police Brutality.”

LGBTQIA+ HISTORY // DAY 03: . Gladys Bentley was born in 1907 to a mother who rejected her from birth because she wanted a boy. As a child, Gladys wore boys' clothes, had crushes on female teachers, and said she always felt different from others. Her family sent her to doctors and psychiatrists to correct her "unladylike behavior", which led to her running away from home at age 16 to live in Harlem. . Upon arriving in Harlem, Gladys answered an ad calling for a male pianist and began performing regularly in mens' clothing. Before long the club was named after her, and she was making a fortune singing and playing piano in clubs. She sang openly about sex, "sissies", "bulldaggers", and called men out in her songs. . Gladys was a memorable figure in the era known as the Harlem Renaissance, and she stood out even among that group of entertainers. She was a fat, loud, queer performer, and was described as as a “masculine-garbed, smut-slinging entertainer”. She was frequently criticized in the papers, harassed for crossdressing, and had to carry a special permit allowing her to be in public while wearing men's clothes. . Though same-sex marriages and interracial marriages weren't legally recognized at the time, Gladys was openly lesbian and even married a white woman. . During the McCarthy Era, Gladys was investigated as a possible "subversive" due to her same-sex marriage. Around the same time, she made an about-face with her sexuality and gender expression. She claimed to be "cured" by taking female hormones and married a man, then began studying to be a minister as her career as a performer waned. . Gladys Bentley died unexpectedly of pneumonia at her home in 1960, but leaves behind a legacy of strong black female masculinity. . #queerhistory #gayhistory #lgbtqhistory #queerpride #transpride #pride #pridemonth #pride2020 #sylviarivera #lgbt #lgbtqia #trans #transgender #queer #lesbian #gay #bisexual #intersex #asexual #pansexual #nonbinary https://www.instagram.com/p/CA_3sr_HNDN/?igshid=ed1avn5tccco

#LGBTQ in the 50s/60s faced an #antigay legal system. Police raids on #gay bars were routine but officers quickly lost control of the situation at the #StonewallInn. Enter #StorméDeLarverie, a #butch #lesbian whose scuffle with police was the spark that ignited the #stonewallriots spurring the crowd to action. She was born in New Orleans, to a #Black mother and a #White father. Shes remembered as a gay #civilrightsicon /entertainer. She was the "guardian of #lesbians in the Village." She is known as "the Rosa Parks of the gay community." The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the #LGBT community against a police raid that began in the early morning of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York. They’re considered the most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in America. Tensions between police and gay residents of Greenwich erupted into more protests the next evening & several nights later. Within weeks, Village residents quickly organized into activist groups to concentrate efforts on establishing places for gays and lesbians to be open about their sexual orientation without fear of being arrested. On June 28, 1970, the first #gaypride marches took place in NY, LA, San Francisco & Chicago commemorating the anniversary of the riots. Today, LGBT #pride events are held annually throughout the world the end of June to mark the Stonewall riots. And we can’t forget #MarshaPJohnson who was a gay liberation activist and #dragqueen. Johnson was one of the prominent figures in the Stonewall uprising. Johnson has been named “one of the individuals known to have been in the vanguard" of the pushback against the police at the uprising. Along with Johnson and Delarverie, #SylviaRivera, #ThomasLaniganSchmidt & #CraigRodwell are known as notable participants of the riots. 🏳️‍🌈🌈☮️ #PrideMonth #MixedLGBT #stonewall51 #blacktranslivesmatter (at Stonewall Inn) https://www.instagram.com/p/CB_ZSyklbXq/?igshid=6p5rz9t57fip

Happy Pride Month. Remember who got us here. #marshapjohnson #sylviarivera #stonewall #pridemonth🌈 #lgbtqia #bi #pan #transally https://www.instagram.com/p/CA6TzKDlZEd/?igshid=tttknoal8tzm

#sylviarivera #robertgiard #brooklyn #1999 https://www.instagram.com/p/CBXtAAFJX7L/?igshid=1wshf9kj5mg8f