Dfaxtory: Stormé DeLarverie: The Butch Lesbian Who Sparked the Stonewall Riots

วันเสาร์ที่ 14 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2568

Stormé DeLarverie: The Butch Lesbian Who Sparked the Stonewall Riots

On the morning of June 28, 1969, in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, an era when same-sex relationships were still condemned and viewed as mental illnesses, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, and arrested some of the gay and lesbian patrons, and were taking them to police vehicles.

Stormé DeLarverie, a butch lesbian and one of those arrested, protested that her handcuffs were too tight. She resisted the officers and was struck on the head with a baton, causing her head to bleed. As everyone was disoriented by the unfolding events, DeLarverie shouted,… "Why don't you guys do something?" before being forcibly put into the police van. Suddenly, the surrounding crowd, composed of both lesbians and gay men, rose up and fought back against the police. This marked the beginning of the LGBT rights movement in America and around the world.

"Nobody knows who threw the first punch, but it's rumored that it was her. And she said she did it," said Lisa Cannistraci, DeLarverie's friend and owner of the lesbian bar Henrietta Hudson. Although it's not definitively known if DeLarverie was the woman who fought her way out of the police vehicle, all witnesses confirm that she was certainly one of the butch lesbians who engaged in the struggle against the police that night.

While the events of June 28, 1969, were later dubbed the "Stonewall Riots," Stormé DeLarverie viewed the incident as an uprising.

"It was a rebellion, it was an uprising, it was civil disobedience - it wasn’t no damn riot," Stormé DeLarverie

Stormé DeLarverie was born around December 24, 1920, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her mother was Black, and her father—her mother's employer—was White. Growing up as a biracial individual of African American and White descent, she faced bullying and discrimination from a young age.

Between 1955 and 1969, she was both a master of ceremonies (MC) and the only "Drag King" (a woman who dresses in masculine attire for performance) in the "Jewel Box Revue," the first racially integrated drag troupe in North America. She was a talented artist whose performances were popular, and she toured nationwide.

After the Stonewall incident, she dedicated her life to protecting and caring for the LGBT community. She frequently patrolled the streets of Gay Street, especially around lesbian bars, to protect young LGBT individuals from harassment and discrimination. She held a gun license and did not hesitate to use it to protect her "children" (DeLarverie viewed LGBT youth as her own children to protect, especially during an era when LGBT individuals were targets of bullying and harassment by state officials). She also worked as a bouncer for several lesbian bars in New York City and and was a member of the Stonewall Veterans' Association—an organization of those who participated in the Stonewall riots. The New York Times once referred to her as the "guardian of lesbians in the Village."

Stormé DeLarverie passed away on May 24, 2014, at the age of 93. She is celebrated as a "hero of gay civil rights" and continues to inspire the LGBTQ+ movement to this day. Her life and struggles are a significant part of what makes Pride Month meaningful today.

On June 7, 2012, Brooklyn Pride, Inc. honored Stormé DeLarverie by screening Michelle Parkerson's film Stormé: The Lady of the Jewel Box at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture. On April 24, 2014, the Brooklyn Community Pride Center honored DeLarverie alongside Edith Windsor (an LGBTQ+ rights activist who successfully championed marriage equality in the US) for her "courage and determination." She also received commendations from Letitia James, a New York City Public Advocate.

In June 2019, DeLarverie was one of 50 American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted into the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) at New York City's Stonewall Inn. The SNM is the first U.S. National Monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights and history, and the wall's unveiling was scheduled to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

Note: Many people mistakenly believe that two gay drag queens, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, initiated the Stonewall riots and choose not to mention DeLarverie. However, Johnson herself/himself confirmed that she/he was not at the point where the confrontation began but heard the news and informed Rivera, who was sleeping on a park bench nearby. As a result, both joined the event after the riots had already started. (Later in life, Rivera identified herself as a transgender woman, while Johnson stated in an interview that she was a gay transvestite, which differs from being a transgender woman.)

Despite not initiating the Stonewall riots, both Johnson and Rivera were among those who continuously protested police violence for several days in front of the Stonewall Inn. They also played crucial roles in advancing the LGBTQ+ rights movement afterward, strengthening and expanding it.

อ้างอิง

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm%C3%A9_DeLarverie

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots

· https://www.nps.gov/people/storme-delarverie.htm

· https://www.storme-delarverie.com/

· https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/storme-delarverie

· https://web.archive.org/web/20140903230252/http://thekword.com/2014/05/28/something-like-a-super-lesbian-storme-delarverie-in-memoriam/

· https://afterellen.com/an-interview-with-lesbian-stonewall-veteran-storm-delarverie/

· https://www.stonewallvets.org/StormeDeLarverie.htm

· https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/nyregion/storme-delarverie-early-leader-in-the-gay-rights-movement-dies-at-93.html?_r=0

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsha_P._Johnson

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Rivera