Photo by Valerie Shaff

Sylvia Rivera is considered a founder of the modern Transgender rights movement. She was a lifelong activist and advocate for LGBTQ homeless and low-income youth, drug users, and sex workers. Service providers today such as the Ali Forney Center, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Queers for Economic Justice and Sylvia’s Place are a testament to the visionary work to support homeless queer youth begun by Sylvia and her organization STAR in the 1970′s.

Sylvia was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front in NY and she devoted her life to STAR (Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries) by keeping a House and supporting trans youth sex workers. Sylvia’s work with STAR had a heyday from 1970-1973, when the group led an occupation at Weinstein Hall and held demonstrations for visibility and rights. In 1973, at the 4th annual Christopher St. Liberation Day, Sylvia was banned from the stage by lesbian feminist Jean O’Leary, who saw Sylvia’s transgender identity as a mockery of women. Sylvia defied this, going mic to mic with her own demands but many people in the growing lesbian and gay movement turned on Sylvia that day. Her demands for inclusion of sex workers and people in prison were met with silence and dismissal. She returned home to STAR House that night and it is believed that she left the movement for the next 10-15 years after an apparent suicide attempt.

During that time, Sylvia lived with friends and still worked in the sex trade. She developed an alcohol dependency and used heroin throughout her life. This cause her periods of deep poverty and affliction. In the mid 1990s, prior to gentrification along the West Side Highway and the re-development of the Chelsea Piers, Sylvia lived on the Piers with other LGBTQ people who were homeless. In this clip, Sylvia – who lived on the Piers at the time, reflects on her friend Marsha P. Johnson, who died on the Piers not far from where Sylvia stands in 1992.

Sylvia Rivera Reflects on the Spirit of Marsha P Johnson from reina july on Vimeo.

On the Piers, Sylvia took part in a small community and lived in structures built for temporary housing, including a modest kitchen area. In this long clip below, Sylvia gives a tour of her house as Randy Wicker interviews her about her life experiences. Skip to the @5:00 mark to get a tour of Sylvia’s home on the Piers.

Randy Wicker Interviews Sylvia Rivera on the Pier from reina july on Vimeo.

Sylvia Rivera: Trans Movement Founder by Randy Wicker