Sylvia Rivera

Sylvia Rae Rivera (July 2, 1951 – February 19, 2002) was an American gay, transgender and civil rights activist September 21, 1995. Accessed July 24, 2015. and drag queen.Leslie Feinberg (September 24, 2006). Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. Workers World Party. "Stonewall combatants Sylvia Rivera and Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson... Both were self-identified drag queens." September 21, 1995. Accessed July 24, 2015. 

Rivera was a founding member of both the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance. With her close friend Marsha P. Johnson, Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens and trans women of color.Marsha P. Johnson died in 1992. In 2001, Rivera "resurrected" the group, renaming it "Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries." SoundPortraits (July 4, 2001). Update on Remembering Stonewall. 

Life
Rivera was born on July 2, 1951 as Ray Rivera. As a child she found a growing interest in makeup. By grade 4 she was wearing makeup to school. Lacking the support she needed from her family, by age 10, her grandmother disapproved and put her out on the street. Rivera became a child sex worker in Times Square.  Later on in her life, Rivera took an interest in human rights, specifically race and gender/sexual orientation. She created the organization STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) with her best friend, Marsha P. Johnson. 

But not too long after, Johnson was found dead, floating in the Hudson River. Rivera was devastated, and she even attempted suicide once. In the end, she died of liver cancer in 2002.

References

Category:1951 births
Category:2002 deaths
Category:American civil rights activists
Category:American LGBT rights activists
Category:Cancer deaths in New York City
Category:Deaths from liver cancer
Category:Drag queens
Category:Gay men
Category:LGBT people from New York City