Marsha P. Johnson

Marsha P. Johnson (June 27, 1944 – July 6, 1992) was a Black American drag queen[1][2] and Gay liberation activist. A veteran of the Stonewall riots, Johnson was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey and was a popular figure in New York City's gay and art scene from the 1960s to the 1990s.[1] Later in life she became an AIDS activist.[1]

Social Action

One of the city's best known drag queens,[1][2] Johnson has been identified as one of the first to fight back in the clashes with the police amid the Stonewall riots.[3][4] In the early 1970s, Johnson and close friend Sylvia Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR); together they were a visible presence at gay liberation marches and other radical political actions.[1] In the 1980s Johnson continued her street activism as a respected organizer and marshall with ACT UP. With Rivera, Johnson was a "mother" of STAR House, getting together food and clothing to help support the young drag queens, trans women and other street kids living on the Christopher Street docks or in their house on the Lower East Side of New York.[5]

Once, appearing in a court the judge asked Marsha, "What does the 'P' stand for?", Johnson gave her customary response "Pay it No Mind."[1] This phrase became her trademark. In 1974 Marsha P. Johnson was photographed by famed artist Andy Warhol, as part of a "ladies and gentlemen" series of polaroids featuring drag queens.[4] Johnson was also a member of Warhol's draq queen performance troupe, Hot Peaches (which has been compared to the similar, San Francisco troupe, The Cockettes).[6] An interview with Marsha P. Johnson by gay activist Allen Young can be found in the book Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation, originally published in 1972 and available in a new edition from New York University Press.

Death

In July 1992, Johnson's body was found floating in the Hudson River off the West Village Piers shortly after the 1992 Pride March.[1] Police ruled the death a suicide.[4] Johnson's friends and supporters said she was not suicidal, and a people's postering campaign later declared that Johnson had earlier been harassed near the spot where her body was found. Attempts to get the police to investigate the cause of death were unsuccessful.[1] However, in November 2012, the New York police department re-opened the case as a possible homicide.

Tributes

Only two days before her death, Johnson was interviewed extensively about her life. The interview forms the core of the 2012 documentary, Pay it No Mind: The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson, directed by Michael Kasino and Richard Morrison.[1] Also interviewed are many of Johnson's closest friends. Johnson is honoured by them as saintly, as a deeply spiritual person who attended every church and temple, who gave away what little she had to help others on the streets, and who made Santeria-influenced offerings to the spirits of the waters that surround and run through New York City.[1] She is honoured as a queen, a veteran activist, and a survivor.[1]

New York City baroque pop band Antony and the Johnsons was named in Johnson's honor,[5] and their eponymous 1998 album features a song called "River of Sorrow," which is inspired by Johnson and her death. The song is featured in the documentary.[1]

Pronouns

As is the case with many drag queens, gay men and radical faeries of the era, Johnson's friends usually used "she/her" pronouns for Johnson, as Johnson was often in drag and had the same personality no matter how she was dressed. But Johnson did not take affront at male pronouns, either, especially if used by close friends and comrades.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 1.12 "Feature Doc 'Pay It No Mind: The Life & Times of Marsha P. Johnson' Released Online. Watch It". Indiewire. December 26, 2012. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Feinberg, Leslie (September 24, 2006). Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. Workers World Party. "Stonewall combatants Sylvia Rivera and Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson... Both were self-identified drag queens."
  3. ↑ Carter, David (2004). Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution. St. Martin's. ISBN 0-312-20025-0.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Feinberg, Leslie (1996) Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman. Boston: Beacon Press, p. 131. ISBN 0-8070-7941-3
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Marsha P. Johnson (1944 - 1992) Activist, Drag Mother." A Gender Variance Who's Who. May 2, 2009. Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
  6. ↑ "Feature Doc 'Pay It No Mind: The Life & Times of Marsha P. Johnson' Released Online. Watch It". Indiewire. December 26, 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2015. 27:15

External links