Marsha P Johnson, a pioneering figure in the LGBTQ+ rights movement is being celebrated for her unrelenting battle for respecting all lives. Google Doodle on June 30, closed Pride Month by paying respect to the icon. An illustration of her by Los Angeles-based guest artist Rob Gilliam is today’s Doodle.
Who was Marsha P Johnson?
Marsha P. Johnson was an American LGTBTQ+ liberation activist and self-identified drag queen. She was known as an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and was one of the prominent figures in the Stonewall uprising of 1969.
A founding member of the Gay Liberation Front, Johnson co-founded the radical activist group Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), alongside close friend Sylvia Rivera.
A popular figure in New York City’s gay and art scene, Johnson modeled for Andy Warhol, and performed onstage with the drag performance troupe Hot Peaches.
Johnson was also an AIDS activist with ACT UP.
The Stonewall Uprising
The Stonewall uprising was a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the LGBTQ community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
Patrons of the Stonewall, other Village lesbian and gay bars, and neighborhood street people fought back when the police became violent. The riots are widely considered to constitute one of the most important events leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States.
Honour of Johnson by Google can be seen as a remarkable impact post George Floyd’s death and Black Lives Matter protests all across the world.
