Sylvia Rivera, born on July 2 in 1951, was a Latina American queer rights activist, member of the Gay Liberation Front, and community worker from the state of New York.
Rivera, who identified as a "half-sister", participated in demonstrations with the Gay Liberation Front. With her close friend Marsha P. Johnson, Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a socialist group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens, gay youth, and trans women.
At different times in her life, Rivera battled substance abuse and lived on the streets, largely in the gay homeless community at the Christopher Street docks. Her experiences made her more focused on advocacy for those who, in her view, mainstream society and the assimilationist factions of the LGBT community were leaving behind.
Rivera died during the dawn hours of February 19th, 2002, at St. Vincent's Hospital, of complications from liver cancer. Activist Riki Wilchins said this of her: "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".
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Remember the radicalism of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson
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“Our armies are rising:” Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson
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cw wh\*te south african guy, racism, very cursed, awful
The company I worked at for five years, I knew personally the vice president of operations, basically the head of the whole corp since the actual company president or whatever was like 120 years old. Was a friend of my mother's.
One of the memories I have is this guy giving an anecdote about having to flee his country, on account of gangs of roving bandits commiting Lindisfarne style rapine and slaughter. At the time I was like 17 had no fucking idea what this guy was talking about, and assumed he was just having a senior moment, (the guy is like 80 now) but once I got on bear website I connected the dots and realised... oh, he's talking about fleeing South Africa after apartheid ended down there. Man's was doin' a racism
at the fucking dinner table, with family and friends.
Ain't seen the guy in ages but holy shit the psychic damage, remembering this incident
I have yet to meet a S. African white person who isn't a shthead.