Friday, July 2, 2010
MAGNET Honors Sylvia Rivera's Birthday
http://transformingmedia.blogspot.com/2010/07/magnet-honors-sylvia-riveras-birthday.htmlToday, July 2nd, is LGBT pioneer Sylvia Rivera's birthday. Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Transsexual & Transgender People (MAGNET) honors this heroic woman, who is credited by historians as being the person who "threw the first heel" in the Stonewall Inn that fateful night in 1969, when the LGBT community decided to fight back against police brutality. Rivera and many other transgender and gender non-conforming people of color at the inn that night were "guilty" of having "gender inappropriate" clothing, which is the excuse the police used to exercise their prejudice with violence. The police were surprised when the guests at the bar decided to fight back! This riot catapulted the modern LGBT movement, and Rivera and other trans people were responsible for kicking things off.
Rivera continued to advocate for LGBT equality, particularly those disenfranchised and homeless. Sadly, after the gay establishment was done using her to get publicity to raise money, she was abandoned by the gay community, and actually died impoverished. They expressed that "transgender issues are too extreme".
