It's important to highlight the challenges that the LGBTQ+ community have endured in their past, in order to help understand and support the modern community that continues to thrive today. Today we celebrate the life of Marsha P Johnson.

Who was Marsha P. Johnson?

Marsha P. Johnson was one of the most prominent figures of the gay rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s in New York City. To this day, she is still a very important figure to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.  

As she was a transgender individual living on the streets of New York with no permanent home, Marsha was an important advocate for homeless LGBTQ+ youth. Together with fellow transgender activist Sylvia Rivera, she founded the Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries (STAR), an organisation that’s goal is to offer help to others facing the struggles of an unaccepting society. STAR would organise with homeless and runaway transgender individuals to build a community and live together. Many transgender people face violence on the streets from intolerant people.  

Along with Rivera, a monument commissioned by the Public Arts Campaign “She Built NYC” will be made in dedication to these two admired women. This is the first monument in NYC to honour transgender women.  

To this day, Marsha’s legacy lives on within the LGBTQ+ community and beyond. She remains one of the most recognised and admired LGBTQ+ advocates. 

To find out more about what's happening this month, visit our LGBTQ+ History Month hub!