The STAR of the modern LGBTQIA+ movement
Welcome back to week three of Pride month! Some of my readers sent me emails with their families in Pride, which was fantastic. It’s so nice to see everyone celebrating Pride both this month and in the past, and would love to hear more about your experiences in Pride. I know that Pride itself can be controversial right now from the LGBTQIA+ community due to being too commercialized, but I still love the parade.
This week, we will be looking at the organization Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a revolutionary organization started by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson (pictured below). These two activists, who were both at the Stonewall Riots, pushed to support those in the LGBTQIA+ community who were “nonconforming” and made sure that transgender people were at the table of the gay rights movement.
(Picture retrieved from CBC Radio)
STAR was an organization that, while only active between approximately 1970 and 1973, had a large impact on the LGBTQIA+ community. The origin of this organization came from a group of sit-ins and protests at New York University in 1970 in response to a cancelled gay dance. Both Johnson & Rivera were active with another advocacy organization, the Gay Liberation Front, which had a complicated relationship with their transgender constituents. After buying a building in East Village of Manhattan, STAR was able to house homeless queer people until they were evicted due to the state of the building.
Along with housing, STAR fought for the recognition of transgender individuals throughout the LGBTQIA+ movement. When the Gay Activists Alliance were ignoring transgender protections, STAR worked with other transgender individuals to protest this. In the 1973 pride parade in New York, when drag queens were not allowed in the parade, STAR walked ahead of the parade. The negative response which they got from the gay rights movement and burnout led to the decline of STAR. As said by Rivera:
Influence of STAR
Even though STAR closed its doors shortly after being opened, the arguments that were had around STAR are still around today. Even today, we are still debating who and what has a place in our pride celebration and how what it means to represent the LGBTQIA+ community during pride. As has been mentioned in previous posts, there is a debate in the history of LGBTQIA+ rights movement of assimilation versus queerness as the future of the movement. STAR is one of the early organizations which not only fought for queerness but also worked towards helping support people who need immediate help (e.g. homeless LGBTQIA+ people) and those who are shunned (e.g. those who do not fit into heteronormative expectations).