Revision as of 05:28, 18 November 2010

Sylvia Rae Rivera (2 July 1951–19 February 2002) was a transgender activist. She was a founding member of both the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance and helped found STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), a group dedicated to helping homeless young street queens, with her friend Marsha P. Johnson.

>==Life and activism== Rivera began living on the streets at the age of eleven.<ref name="tapestry">Scarpinato, Bebe and Rusty Moore. Transitions: Sylvia Rivera. Transgender Tapestry #098, Summer 2002</ref> Her activism began around the time of the Stonewall Riots.

At different times in her life, Sylvia Rivera battled substance abuse issues and lived on the streets. Her experiences made her more focused on advocacy for those who, in her view, the mainline community (and often the queer community) were leaving behind.

In May 1995, Rivera tried to commit suicide by walking into the Hudson River.<ref name="nytsuicide">Staff report (1995 May 24). About New York; Still Here: Sylvia, Who Survived Stonewall, Time and the River. New York Times</ref> That year she also appeared in the Arthur Dong documentary episode "Out Rage '69", part of the PBS series The Question of Equality.<ref name=outrage69">Goodman, Walter (1995 November 4). Television Review: The Gay Search for Equality. New York Times</ref> Rivera died during the dawn hours of 2002 February 19 at New York's St. Vincent's Hospital, of complications from cancer of the liver.<ref name="nytobit">Dunlap, David W. (2002 February 20). Sylvia Rivera, 50, Figure in Birth of the Gay Liberation Movement. New York Times</ref> Activist Riki Wilchins noted, "In many ways, Sylvia was the Rosa Parks of the modern transgender movement, a term that was not even coined until two decades after Stonewall."<ref name="voiceobit">Wilchins, Riki (2002 February 27). A Woman for Her Time: In Memory of Stonewall Warrior Sylvia Rivera. Village Voice</ref>

Controversy

She refused to have drag culture erased from the gay rights agenda by what she considered to be assimilationist gay leaders who were, in her mind, seeking to make the community look more attractive to the heterosexual majority. Rivera's conflicts with mainstream gay and lesbian advocacy groups was emblematic of the mainstream gay rights movement's strained relationship to transvestite, or transgender issues. After her death, Michael Bronski recalled her anger when she felt that she was being marginalised within the community:

After Gay Liberation Front folded and the more reformist Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) became New York’s primary gay rights group, Sylvia Rivera worked hard within their ranks in 1971 to promote a citywide gay rights, anti-discrimination ordinance. But for all of her work, when it came time to make deals, GAA dropped the portions in the civil rights bill that dealt with transvestitism and drag—it just wasn’t possible to pass it with such “extreme” elements included. As it turned out, it wasn’t possible to pass the bill anyway until 1986. But not only was the language of the bill changed, GAA—which was becoming increasingly more conservative, several of its founders and officers had plans to run for public office—even changed its political agenda to exclude issues of transvestitism and drag. It was also not unusual for Sylvia to be urged to “front” possibly dangerous demonstrations, but when the press showed up, she would be pushed aside by the more middle-class, “straight-appearing” leadership. In 1995, Rivera was still hurt: “When things started getting more mainstream, it was like, ‘We don’t need you no more’.” But, she added, “Hell hath no fury like a drag queen scorned.”^[1]

According to Bronski, Rivera was banned from New York's Gay & Lesbian Community Center for several years in the mid-nineties, because, on a cold winter's night, she aggressively demanded that the Center take care of poor and homeless queer youth. A short time before her death, Bronski reports that she said:

One of our main goals now is to destroy the Human Rights Campaign, because I’m tired of sitting on the back of the bumper. It’s not even the back of the bus anymore — it’s the back of the bumper. The bitch on wheels is back. ^[1]

Quotes

“I’m not missing a minute of this, it’s the revolution.” --Regarding the Stonewall Riots, from the New York Blade ^[2] "The bitch is back" -- regarding her return to politics

Tributes

An active member of the Metropolitan Community Church of New York, Rivera ministered through the Church's food pantry, which provided food to the hungry. Recalling her life as a child on the streets, she remained a passionate advocate for queer youth, and MCC New York's queer youth shelter is called Sylvia's Place in her honour. ^[3]

In 2002, actor/comedian Jade Esteban Estrada portrays Rivera in the well-received solo musical ICONS: The Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Vol. 1 winning her renewed national attention.

In 2005, the corner of Christopher and Hudson streets was renamed "Rivera Way" in her honour. This intersection is in Greenwich Village, the neighborhood in New York City where Rivera started organizing, and is only two blocks from the Stonewall Inn. ^[4]

Named in her honor, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project is dedicated "to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination or violence."

Footnotes

See also

• Gay Liberation Front, Gay Activists Alliance
• Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries
• Stonewall Riots

External links

• Sylvia Rivera Law Project
• Sylvia's Place via Metropolitan Community Church of New York Homeless Youth Services
• Stonewall Veterans Association