澳彩开奖

Rivera, whose mother died and father abandoned her, was finally on her own. She was only 11 years old.

By the time she was 17, she would be well on her way to becoming, as one writer would later call her,

It鈥檚 a title that was all but lost with the passage of time. But as we look back on her life during what would have been the week of her 67^th birthday, Rivera鈥檚 contributions to the movement are finally beginning to garner the recognition she was so long denied.聽

Lobbying for a gay rights bill in New York City; becoming an early member of the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA); and agitating for greater acceptance of gender nonconforming people in聽her Latinx community, Rivera found herself at the helm of the burgeoning LGBT rights movement of the 1960s.

It wasn't just lonely battle: it was a dangerous one.

鈥淭ry to imagine being an eleven year old kid and being kicked out onto the streets of New York,鈥� told Raul A. Reyes for NBC. 鈥淚t must have been brutal. Growing up like this made Sylvia both hard as nails and extremely vulnerable.鈥�

By her own admission, she endured 鈥渕any times.鈥� But Rivera refused to give up. When riots broke out at the Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969, that she shouted, 鈥淚鈥檓 not missing a moment of this 鈥斅爄t鈥檚 the revolution!鈥�

Alongside her that night was another legendary transgender woman of color, Marsha P. Johnson, who, according to some accounts, may have been the one to start the historic riots.

鈥淢arsha threw a shot glass into a mirror, saying 鈥業 got my civil rights!鈥欌�� It was described by some activists as 鈥渢he shot glass that was heard around the world.鈥�

Together, Johnson and Rivera took New York City by storm, founding STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), and opening the , which provided not only housing but social services for transgender youth. Some credit STAR with developing the that have driven the early 21st century.

But even as Johnson and Rivera were committed to transgender rights in the early 1970s, the gay rights movement was not.

鈥淏ack in 1970, 1971, there was some appreciation for drag queens, but not for what we know as transgender people today,鈥� told Reyes. 鈥淭he gay community was not willing to embrace [Rivera], and neither was the women鈥檚 liberation movement.鈥�

By 1973, GAA had from its agenda 鈥� and neither Johnson nor Rivera were having any of it.

鈥淲hen things started getting more mainstream,鈥� , 鈥渋t was like, 鈥榃e don鈥檛 need you no more.鈥欌��

In a from the 1973 Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally, Rivera 鈥減ushed and fought her way through people she once considered her allies, shoving them out of her way to make it onstage.鈥� :

She started on an articulate rampage, forcing the audience to at least hear about the beatings and rapes her children [at STAR] had endured in jails and at the hands of police, and castigating the mainstream gay rights movement for abandoning them. In the end, though, she broke down in sobs as she led the rally in a cheer: 鈥淕ive me a G!鈥� she demanded, and spelled out 鈥済ay power,鈥� a chant the crowd joined reluctantly at first, and then with enthusiasm. Rivera made it almost to the last letter before she started crying.

By the time Rivera died in 2002, she had earned the moniker, an honorific that could just as easily have been applied to Johnson, whose , too, persisted long after the Stonewall riots that she may have sparked.

But when Johnson鈥檚 body was found in the Hudson River 26 years ago this week, police ruled a suicide (later reclassified as a case of drowning and reopened in 2012). Her place in the movement, like Rivera, was all but forgotten.

Both women, however, clearly deserve pride of place in the canon of LGBT history. As :

The movement may not want to recall that it was started by gender non-conforming people of color. But we should not forget our roots, or turn away from them. Even today, there are people like Sylvia 鈥斅爕oung, Hispanic, effeminate 鈥� being pushed out of their families and rejected. Sylvia was not a one-off, she was and is one of many. If she was a one-off at all, it was in her courage to fight back.

May we all have the courage to do the same.

The Editors.

P.S. Here are some other pieces we think are valuable this week:

• . by Francisco Cant煤 for The New York Times
• by Tim Murphy for Mother Jones
• White widow鈥檚 secret:聽 I was married to an Aryan supremacist by Bill Morlin for the 澳彩开奖
• by Sarah Netter for Rolling Stone

澳彩开奖鈥檚 Weekend Readings are a weekly summary of the most important news reporting and commentary from around the country on civil rights, economic and racial inequality, and hate and extremism.聽Sign up to receive Weekend Readings every Saturday morning.