on this day we celebrate revolutionary black trans visionary, performer, aids activist and mother of pride, marsha p. johnson. today would have been her 73rd birthday.
marshaโs liberation work did not end with her playing a key role during the stonewall uprisings in 1969. she, along with her friend sylvia rivera, was a founding member of the gay liberation front - a movement that centered lgbtq folks that were marginalized by other lgbtq folks.
marsha & sylvia also formed STAR, a community based org that provided housing & other support to homeless youth, sex workers, trans, & poor queer folks. STAR was a groundbreaking organization in the queer liberation movement and has become the model for many organizations since.
as the AIDS epidemic began to impact queer communities in the 1980โs, marsha became an outspoken and visible member of ACT-UP. she participated in the legendary protest on wall street against the high costs and inaccessibility of new HIV/AIDS medication.
marsha became an ancestor at the age of 46 on july 6, 1992. her body was found in the hudson river. her death was ruled suicide despite proof that she may have been a victim of anti-trans violence. 25 years later, the case was re-opened.
happy birthday, marsha! we will continue to speak your name and lift your legacy!
The way men talk about impregnating women is not just disgusting but it is also indicative of the fact that, generally speaking, they fully understand that women can be controlled specifically through being made to bear children. This whole notion that men do not, on at least some level, understand the importance of reproductive rights for women is nothing but another iteration of the very false idea that men are just too stupid to help with the dishes, or help dress the kids, or pick up their socks, etc.
Ramon Hernandez has been sitting in a fold-up chair on his Harlem block every summer for decades. One recent evening, the 105-year-old had an evening dominoes game going with a couple of his neighbors as music played out of a nearby parked car. It’s a tradition in the historically Latino neighborhood that has been largely undisturbed for decades.
That is until “the cops started coming about two years ago,” said Edward Tineo, 42, one of the guys who plays dominoes with Hernandez.
The increased police presence “makes me feel bad. I’ve been living here for more than 40 years,” said Hernandez through his granddaughter, who translated for him. He likes to sit outside to “get some fresh air.”
What’s changed?
A BuzzFeed News data analysis shows there has been a dramatic increase in 311 quality-of-life complaints on the block starting in 2015, the majority about noise. The uptick coincides with the neighborhood’s gentrification, with more white people moving in, and homes getting more expensive.
