By Katlyn Marotz, Senior Managing News Editor & Staff Writer
Sylvia Rivera worked tirelessly advocating for those disregarded or excluded by larger movements, even those such as the gay rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
As an American activist for gay liberation, she pushed for transgender rights and was a community worker in New York.
Rivera was born on July 2 1951, in New York City, and assigned male gender, but had an incredibly difficult childhood. Her mother committed suicide when she was 3 and her father was absent from her life, leaving her grandmother to raise her. As she began to express her femininity, she was beaten and regularly attacked, ultimately leading to her suspension from school. At the age of 11, she ran away from home and became a victim of child sex trafficking and prostitution, often experiencing homelessness and substance abuse.
Years later, when she met Marsha P. Johnson, an activist and drag queen who was fighting for transgenders to be included in the gay rights movement, her life changed. Rivera once described Rivera as a mother figure who provided her support and kindness.
The two co-founded STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) to help LGBTQ+ homeless youth. She became a persistent voice for the rights of people of color and low-income queers and transgender people, and co-founded the Gay Liberation Front. She participated in the Stonewall Inn riots of 1969 and many subsequent fights for the inclusion and recognition of transgender individuals.
On Feb. 19, 2002, she died due to liver cancer. Her legacy lives on though in the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, which works to guarantee people freedom to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, violence or discrimination. In 2015, Rivera’s portrait was added to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., making her the first transgender actvitst to be included in the gallery.