“I’m tired of being labeled. I don’t even like the label transgender. I’m tired of living with labels. I just want to be who I am. I am Sylvia Rivera. Ray Rivera left home at the age of 10 to become Sylvia. And that’s who I am.” Sylvia Rivera

 

Sylvia Rivera, who was born as Ray Rivera, was born in a Puerto Rican/Venezuelan family in Bronx, New York. She became an orphan at the age of 3 when her father left the family after her birth and her mother committed suicide. Raised by her grandmother, she ran away when she was 10 and found a tribe of sex workers, drag queens, and gays. At that time, Mafia-run bars such as the Stonewall Inn, where the famous Stonewall Riot (some argue that it should be called Stonewall Rebellion) was launched, were the only safe spaces for the queer community. One year after the Stonewall Riot, she cofounded STAR, an organisation dedicated to help homeless trans youth hustling on the street. On an annual Christopher Street Day march in 1973, she took the stage in a chorus of boos and delivered her well-known speech addressing her frustration towards the exclusion of transgender in the LGBT community dominated by middle-class white gays. After that incident and an attempt of suicide, Sylvia Rivera disappeared from the public eyes for almost two decades. In the 90s, she slowly reengaged into the movements of her community until her death in 2005.

 

References

• Giselle Defares, The Crusade Of Transgender Activist Sylvia Rivera (2018)

• Jeffry J. Iovannone, Sylvia Rivera: Street Transgender Action Revolutionary (2017)

• Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, Street Transgender Action Revolutionary (2013), Untorelli Press

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Submitted by Paula Chang

Edited by Paula Chang