Marsha P. Johnson

1945-1992

Marsha P. Johnson was an outspoken LGBTQ rights activist and advocate for transgender people of color like herself. After moving to New York City in 1963, she embraced her identity as a Black trans woman, drag queen, and activist. Johnson was a key figure in the 1969 Stonewall riots. The next year, she and Sylvia Rivera established the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group committed to helping homeless transgender youth in New York City. She later began advocating for resources to combat the AIDS epidemic. Johnson was found dead in July 1992 at age 46. The circumstances of her death are now part of an open homicide investigation that remains unsolved.

FULL NAME: Marsha P. Johnson
BORN: August 24, 1945
DIED: July 6, 1992
BIRTHPLACE: Elizabeth, New Jersey
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Virgo

Marsha P. Johnson was born on August 24, 1945 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Her parents were Malcolm Michaels Sr., an assembly line worker at General Motors, and Alberta Michaels, a housekeeper. Johnson was the fifth of seven children, and the working-class Black family was rooted in their Christian faith.

Assigned male at birth, Johnson began showing her true identity at an early age. She began dressing like a girl around age 5. Her parents didn’t support her self-expression, and other kids bullied her. Even worse, she was sexually assault by a 13-year-old boy. The experience temporarily halted her cross-dressing.

In 1963, Johnson graduated from Thomas A. Edison High School and moved to New York City. The 17-year-old only brought one bag of clothes and $15 with her.

The teenager settled in New York City’s Greenwich Village but struggled to make ends meet. Although she earned some money as a waiter, her primary source of income came from sex work. That had its own challenges, particularly as some clients abused her and the police arrested her from time to time. She also wasn’t earning enough money to afford a permanent place to live, leaving her homeless.

However, New York was where Johnson could finally embrace her identity as a Black transgender woman. She went by a few names before permanently adopting Marsha P. Johnson, taking her last name from the restaurant chain Howard Johnson. Her fashion sense turned heads, particularly her outlandish hats, flower crowns, and glamorous costume jewelry.

Johnson was fearless and bold. When people pried about her gender or lifestyle, she quipped back with “pay it no mind.” Johnson said the phrase was also what her middle initial stood for. Her forthright nature and enduring strength led her to speak out against injustices.

Amidst the nightlife of Greenwich Village’s Christopher Street, the hub of New York City’s LGBTQ community in the 1960s, Johnson found joy as a drag queen. She designed all of her own costumes, mostly from thrift shops. Drag shows were yet another way she earned money.

Increasingly, she was becoming a prominent fixture in New York City’s LGBTQ community, serving as a “drag mother” by helping homeless and struggling LGBTQ youth. Soon, her impact as an activist would reach even more people.

Johnson was one of the many protesters involved in the 1969 Stonewall riots. The public clash between LGBTQ activists and local police erupted in the early morning on June 28.

During a regular raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street, authorities arrested a few LGBTQ people on questionable charges, handcuffed them, and very publicly forced them into police cars outside. At the time, New York was among the majority of places where homosexuality was illegal. Fed up with how authorities treated them, the LGBTQ community decided to fight back after seeing these public arrests. Violence spilled over into the neighboring streets and lasted several days.

These events have been collectively described as “riots,” a “rebellion,” a “protest,” and an “uprising.” Whatever the label, this was certainly a watershed moment in LGBTQ history. The first gay pride parade took place the next year, and activists channeled their ongoing frustrations into newly formed gay rights groups.

According to the National Women’s History Museum, Johnson’s exact role in these events isn’t known. Only 23 years old at the time, she was initially credited with throwing the first brick of the uprising, but this was later disproven. Johnson arrived at the Stonewall Inn with her friend Sylvia Rivera around 2 a.m. on June 28 and later described how “the place was already on fire, and there was a raid already. The riots had already started.” According to the National Park Service, which oversees the Stonewall National Monument, witnesses saw Johnson dropping a heavy object on top of a police car during the confrontation.

No matter her exact actions, Marsha was considered one of the key participants of the uprising and, thus, is now recognized as a vanguard of the LGBTQ liberation movement in the United States.

Marsha P. Johnson attends the 1982 Pride March in New York City.

Johnson was quick to join gay rights organizations that formed in the wake of the Stonewall uprising. However, the movement began to silo trans people of color and their issues as it focused on cisgender members of the community. Johnson knew trans people need support, too, so she got to work.

In 1970, she and her friend Sylvia Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. STAR advocated for transgender rights and provided shelter and other resources to LGBTQ youth without homes. The organization’s shelter, STAR House, was initially located in an unused trailer truck before operating out of a rundown building for eight months.

Even after STAR disbanded, Johnson continued speaking out for LGBTQ rights and was steadfast in her commitment to helping homeless transgender youth. Her advocacy even attracted the attention of Andy Warhol, and Johnson once modeled for him. She continued working as a drag queen, and for a period, she performed with a drag group called the Hot Peaches.

In the 1980s, Johnson’s activism grew to include the AIDS epidemic as she joined Act Up, a prominent organization dedicated to the cause. By 1990, Johnson was personally impacted by the disease when she tested positive for HIV.

On July 6, 1992, Johnson’s body was found in the Hudson River off the West Village Piers in New York City. She was 46 years old.

Authorities determined Johnson had died by suicide. Throughout her life, the activist had struggled with her mental health, but friends and other members of the local community said she wasn’t suicidal at the time of her death.

In 2002, Johnson’s cause of death was changed to “undetermined.” A decade later, the New York Police Department reopened the case, but her death remains unsolved. It’s now considered an open homicide investigation.

Victoria Cruz, a crime victim advocate of the New York City Anti-Violence Project conducted her own examination, speaking to coroners, police precincts, and friends and family of Johnson. Her research formed the basis of the 2017 documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, which streamed on Netflix.

Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or self-harming behaviors, call or text 988 to get help from the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

For decades, Johnson’s contributions as an LGBTQ activist and a Stonewall protester were overlooked. But recent years have brought more notice to the revolutionary trans activist.

Her story was featured in the 2012 documentary Pay It No Mind: Marsha P. Johnson and the 2017 short film Happy Birthday, Marsha!, a dramatized depiction of her life in the hours leading up to the Stonewall protests.

The Marsha P. Johnson Institute was established in 2015. Its mission is to defend and protect the human rights of transgender and gender nonconforming communities.

In 2020, New York State renamed its East River State Park to Marsha P. Johnson State Park in the activist’s honor. A year later, writer and activist Eli Erlick partnered with a sculptor and other organizers to create a bronze bust of Johnson at New York City’s Christopher Park, near the Stonewall Inn.

• I may be crazy, but that don’t make me wrong.
• I was no one, nobody, from Nowheresville until I became a drag queen.
• How many years has it taken people to realize that we are all brothers and sisters and human beings in the human race?
• History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable. It happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.
• You never completely have your rights, one person, until you all have your rights.

Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us!

Biography.com Editors

Staff Editorial Team and Contributors

The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us

Tyler Piccotti

News and Culture Editor, Biography.com

Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.