Marsha P. Johnson
Age 46 (born 24 Aug 1945)6 Jul 1992
New York (USA)
Not reported
TDoR list ref: tdor.info/6 Jul 1992/Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha's body was found floating in the Hudson River. Although she may have drowned, there was a large wound on the back of her head.
Friends and acquaintances reported seeing her being chased earlier the same night.
In July 1992, Marsha P. Johnson's body was found floating in the Hudson River. The police called it a suicide. But friends and witnesses provided a different story. Some reported seeing the LGBT rights pioneer being chased by unknown pursuers in the streets of New York City that same night. Did Johnson fall through the boards of the West Village Piers? Was she pushed? Did she jump to escape pursuers with possible Mafia ties? Did she take her own life due to fear or depression?
Marsha's name is one which should be familiar to all in the LGBT+ community, as she was there at Stonewall right at the beginning.
Johnson, a veteran of the Stonewall riots, was one of the first to fight back against police during the historic LGBT uprising. Along with [Sylvia] Rivera, Johnson founded STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), an organization that assisted transgender folks, drag queens, gender-nonconforming people, and homeless LGBT youth. (Johnson never identified as a transgender woman in the modern sense, adopting labels like drag queen and "gay transvestite." However, she is considered a mother of the trans movement).
Johnson was also an organizer with ACT UP during the early years of the AIDS crisis in New York. It's quite a legacy.
"In the days after the Stonewall riot — and we all know of her central involvement in the Stonewall riot — the days after, there were just a handful of people, maybe a dozen, who got together to form the Gay Liberation Front — the first of the modern gay rights organizations," he continued. "She was one of those people. She built the foundation for the movement. She was the archetype."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsha_P._Johnson
https://www.advocate.com/crime/marsha-p-johnson-murder
https://www.advocate.com/film/2017/5/09/what-would-marsha-p-johnson-do-today
http://www.theradicalnotion.com/10-things-to-know-about-marsha-p-johnson/
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10_JeZ7LEIRhvewTCoL5mVkH6MQJzf7fSXl4-P6QJ0v0/edit#gid=0
https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/col/j96020977
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/marsha-p-johnson
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked-marsha-p-johnson.html
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/marsha-p-johnsons-historic-role-in-the-lgbtq-rights-movement
https://wams.nyhistory.org/growth-and-turmoil/growing-tensions/marsha-p-johnson/
https://www.nps.gov/people/marsha-p-johnson.htm
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marsha-P-Johnson
https://www.hrc.org/news/the-cold-case-of-an-lgbtq-pioneer-marsha-p-johnson
