P R I D E
By JaVonne Bowles
Have you heard of the trans activist Sylvia Rivera? It wasn’t until I began research for this piece that I learned of their name and the pivotal role they played in the fight for justice for the LGBTQ+ community.
Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and many other transgender women of color are part of the reason we celebrate Pride in June each year. The activism and community work led by transgender women of color deserves more than one month of recognition. However, their contributions to the gay rights movement have not been fully acknowledged until recently.
More than 52 years ago, Rivera, Johnson and others tried to stop the police raids at New York’s Stonewall Inn, a safe-haven for members of the LGBTQ+ community. The uprising they led against police brutality lasted six days, and gained international attention, much like the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.
This was a turning point for the gay rights movement -- the first Pride parade took place a month after the Stonewall uprising -- yet for many years Sylvia and other transgender activists were discriminated against and excluded from the larger movement.
As I continue to read about the monumental actions and ramifications of the Stonewall uprising, I am realizing how it connects to the work I’m doing with Virginia Community Voice as a Community Advocate. With guidance from Southside neighbors, Virginia Community Voice is uplifting and prioritizing stories of lived experience, and making sure that our actions reflect what neighbors want.
This advocacy work has further connected pieces of my sexual and racial identity in ways I hadn’t expected. As someone who is pansexual and polyamorous, a woman, and Black, I have recognized that many of the struggles of my marginalized identity are the same across other demographics. Often the most marginalized of us are those who live into and embody our intersecting, complex, beautiful identities.
For any historically marginalized group, we desire to have our humanity recognized. We seek a shared understanding that another person’s life is not more valuable, because they have more power, resources, or a conventional way of expressing who they are.
Unfortunately in social movements, even those fighting for universal human rights, it is common for a minority group to be sidelined or excluded for the sake of mainstream social acceptance.
“We were determined that evening that we were going to be a liberated, free community.”
“We were determined that evening that we were going to be a liberated, free community” Sylvia Rivera said about the Stonewall uprising.
Quotes such as this remind us of a shared desire to be recognized for who we are, and to live at peace. This could apply to so many social and political movements in which freedom is prioritized for some, but not all of us. That’s why we need to keep telling the stories of people like Sylvia Rivera, whose rightful place is in the center of the LGBTQ+ movement. They are the driving force behind true change.
I encourage you to read them. And to continue the work of listening and centering the most marginalized voices, until all decisions are made equitably.