Marsha P. Johnson, American Gay Liberation Activist and Drag Queen
Transwomen are one of the most abused and marginalised demographic in the world. They are constantly denied humanity and are often targets of violence. However, some transwomen have fought through these challenges and have fought for the interests of other transwomen.
Marsha “Pay it no mind” Johnson is one of those women.
Marsha was born on August 24, 1945, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, as Malcolm Michaels Jr. Malcolm Michaels Sr, Michaels' father, worked on the GM assembly line, and Alberta Claiborne, Michaels' mother, was a maid.
Marsha and her six siblings were raised In the Mount Teman African Methodist Episcopal Church. Marsha first started wearing dresses when she was five years old, but she briefly stopped because of abuse from males who lived nearby.
After permanently relocating from New Jersey to Greenwich Village in 1966, Marsha legally changed her name to Marsha P. Marsha. When people would inquire about her middle name, she would respond, "Pay it no mind."
The statement was meant to be a rhetorical response to the concern that many people had about whether she was a man or a woman. By including "pay it no mind" in her moniker, the public was discouraged from posing the query she detested hearing.
Marsha was a colourful woman who drew attention to herself by dressing in eye-catching jewellery and exotic headwear. She was Marsha P. Marsha when she wore these clothes or any other feminine apparel.
Though there were times when she went back to her male persona of Malcolm. She was more comfortable and happy in her female persona as Marsha, and among others who also felt more comfortable in a persona that is different than the one they were born into, she felt she could help.
She lived in New York City’s Greenwich Village from 1966 until her death in 1992. Marsha was devoted to the alternative lifestyle she lived and the support of others who wanted to live their lives that way.
When the Stonewall Inn started letting women and drag queens inside (it had previously been a bar for just homosexual men), Marsha was one of the first drag queens to visit. The Stonewall revolt took place on June 28, 1969, in the wee hours. While the first two nights of the rioting were the most violent, there were a number of unplanned marches and rallies in the homosexual districts of Greenwich Village for about a week after the police clashed with the crowd. Even in the most liberal area of the biggest metropolis in the US, acceptance wasn't always easy to come by.
The riots marked a violent turning point in the opposition to the culture. Along with her close friend Sylvia Rivera, Marsha co-founded the radical activist group Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.) After the riots. Marsha was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front. Performing onstage with the drag performance group Hot Peaches and modelling for Andy Warhol made Marsha a well-known personality in New York City's homosexual and art communities.
Marsha was a hospitable figure in Greenwich Village's streets and was dubbed the "mayor of Christopher Street" for this reason. Marsha worked with ACT UP as an AIDS activist from 1987 until 1992. Marsha was living on the streets and using survival sex by 1966. Marsha claimed to have had over 100 arrests for sex-related crimes and one shooting in the late 1970s. Randy Wicker claimed Marsha was getting sicker and more frail right before her death in 1992.
None of Marsha's family members or acquaintances, however, thought he was suicidal. Marsha's body was found floating in the Hudson River soon after the 1992 Gay Pride Parade. Although Marsha's friends and other nearby residents said he was not suicidal and pointed out that the back of her head had a significant wound, the police first classified Marsha's death as a suicide.