SYMHC Classics: Sylvia Rivera

Summary

Stuff You Missed in History Class: SYMHC Classics – Sylvia Rivera

Release Date: June 28, 2025
Hosts: Holly Frey & Tracy B. Wilson
Produced by: iHeartPodcasts

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Introduction

In this classic episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class, hosts Holly Frey and Tracy B. Wilson delve deep into the life and legacy of Sylvia Rivera, a pivotal figure in the LGBTQ+ rights movement. Sylvia Rivera's story is often overshadowed by other civil rights icons, but her relentless activism and passionate advocacy for transgender and gender non-conforming individuals have left an indelible mark on history.

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Early Life and Struggles

Sylvia Rivera was born on July 2, 1951, to a Venezuelan mother and a Puerto Rican father. Her early years were marred by tragedy and adversity:

• Family Tragedy: At the tender age of three, Sylvia's mother committed suicide by ingesting rat poison and attempted to take Sylvia's life as well. Fortunately, Sylvia survived and was subsequently raised by her strict grandmother, Viajita.

  "Sylvia's mother committed suicide by eating rat poison when Sylvia was three. She also tried to kill Sylvia at that time, but Sylvia survived and went on to be raised by her grandmother, Viajita." [06:37]

• Abusive Home Environment: Viajita, functioning as a single parent, was both nurturing and punitive. While she taught Sylvia practical skills like cooking and sewing, she despised Sylvia's expression of her feminine identity. Physical punishment was not uncommon when Sylvia donned women's clothing or wore makeup.

  "We don't do this. You're one of the boys. I want you to be a mechanic. And Sylvia would answer, no, I want to be a hairdresser, and I want to wear these clothes." [07:24]

• Bullying and Isolation: Beyond her home life, Sylvia faced relentless bullying at school and in her neighborhood. This constant struggle led her to attempt suicide at age 10 by ingesting her grandmother's pills, resulting in a two-month hospital stay.

  "At some point, she started to commit suicide by taking her grandmother's pills. She wound up instead in the hospital for two months." [07:53]

• Running Away: Feeling isolated and distressed by her circumstances, Sylvia ran away from home at age 11, seeking refuge on 42nd Street in New York City—a hub for crossdressers and street workers. Here, she turned to sex work out of necessity, as she had no other means to support herself.

  "Feeling lonely, isolated, and desperately at odds with everyone around her, Sylvia left home at age 11." [08:38]

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The Stonewall Riots

Sylvia's life took a significant turn when she became involved in one of the most pivotal events in LGBTQ+ history—the Stonewall Riots.

• First Encounter with Stonewall: Just days before her 18th birthday, Sylvia walked into the Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969, marking the beginning of her lifelong activism.

  "A few days shy of Sylvia's 18th birthday, she went to the Stonewall Inn for the first time. And this was June 28th of 1969." [09:08]

• Context of LGBTQ+ Spaces: During this era, gay bars like the Stonewall Inn were often under Mafia ownership as homosexuality was criminalized. Regular police raids were common, leading to frequent arrests and harassment of patrons.

  "Homosexuality was a crime, and so was cross dressing. So pretty much the only people who were willing to operate businesses that catered to this demographic were also themselves criminals." [09:35]

• The Spark of Rebellion: On that fateful night, patrons had grown weary of constant harassment. Tensions escalated when individuals began throwing coins at police officers, followed by the hurling of bottles and Molotov cocktails. Sylvia is widely credited with being the first to throw a bottle, although later in her life, she clarified that she was actually the second.

  "Sylvia is widely cited as the first to do this, but near the end of her life, she really worked to try to dispel this idea, saying that she was, in fact, the second to throw a bottle." [10:55]

• Aftermath and Significance: The Stonewall Riot became a catalyst for the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, serving as both a rallying cry and a symbol of resistance.

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Activism and the Gay Rights Movement

Following Stonewall, Sylvia Rivera emerged as a fervent advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, particularly for transgender and gender non-conforming individuals.

• Formation of Gay Rights Organizations: In the wake of Stonewall, two significant organizations were established in New York—the Gay Activists Alliance and the Gay Liberation Front. Sylvia was actively involved in both, pushing for broader inclusivity.

  "2 Gay rights organizations formed in New York in the wake of the riot. That was the Gay Activists alliance and the Gay Liberation Front, and Sylvia was active in both of those groups." [18:35]

• Advocacy for Anti-Discrimination Legislation: As part of the Gay Activists Alliance, Sylvia petitioned the city of New York for anti-discrimination protections. Her activism led to multiple arrests, yet she remained undeterred.

  "As part of the Gay Activists Alliance, Sylvia petitioned the city of New York for an anti discrimination bill, and she was arrested while trying to get signatures. When she appeared before the judge, he immediately let her go." [18:46]

• Betrayal and Exclusion: Despite her efforts, compromises were made that excluded protections for crossdressers and transgender individuals. This exclusion devastated Sylvia and many others, feeling utterly betrayed by the very movement they fought for.

  "The bill, minus discrimination protections for gender expression, did not actually pass until 15 years later. So that would have been 1986." [19:46]

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Founding of STAR and Support for Transgender Youth

Facing exclusion from mainstream gay rights organizations, Sylvia co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) alongside Marsha P. Johnson in 1970.

• Establishing STAR House: STAR House began as an outreach initiative for homeless transgender youth, operating initially out of a truck before securing a permanent location. It provided shelter, food, and guidance to those in need.

  "Sylvia and Marsha's next step was to start what was known as Star House. And this was an outreach effort for the so called street queens... They provided shelter, food, and guidance for homeless transgender youth." [20:58]

• Challenges and Resilience: Maintaining STAR House was fraught with difficulties, including financial instability and eviction due to non-payment of rent. Despite these setbacks, Sylvia and Marsha continued their mission to protect and support vulnerable youth.

  "Star House was evicted from the property for non-payment of rent. And before they left, they took the refrigerator and they destroyed all of the improvements that they'd made in the building out of a sort of turnabout as fair play mindset." [22:03]

• Intersectionality in Activism: Sylvia's activism was not limited to LGBTQ+ rights. She was also involved with the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords, illustrating her commitment to broader social justice causes.

  "Throughout this time, Sylvia was also active in other radical organizations as well, including the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords, which is a Puerto Rican nationalist activism group." [22:55]

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Facing Exclusion and Continuing the Struggle

Sylvia's unwavering commitment often put her at odds with other factions within the LGBTQ+ community.

• Christopher Street Liberation Day Incident: In 1973, Sylvia was barred from speaking at a festival commemorating Stonewall by radical feminists who viewed her presence as undermining their agenda. In response, Sylvia seized the microphone, passionately denouncing the exclusion of crossdressers and transgender individuals.

  "Sylvia's response was to physically grab the microphone and to talk anyway with a lot of vigor and profanity behind her words. She spoke very candidly and angrily about how the gay community was benefiting from the crossdressers work while simultaneously excluding them from their successes." [23:35]

• Relocation and Isolation: Following this incident, Sylvia moved to Tarrytown, New York, reducing her involvement in active protests but remaining a symbolic figure in annual commemorations of Stonewall.

  "After this incident, Sylvia moved to Tarrytown, New York and lived with a boyfriend. Since she was no longer in the city, she became less prominent in its civil rights and gay rights efforts." [24:24]

• Return to Activism in the 1990s: Discovering Sylvia living on the streets in the early 1990s rekindled her activism. She re-engaged with the community, advocating fiercely for transgender rights and supporting victims of hate crimes.

  "Journalists... found her living on the streets in New York in the early 1990s. This actually marked her return to activism and to the public eye." [24:53]

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Later Life and Legacy

Sylvia's final years were marked by both continued activism and personal struggles.

• Legal Advocacy and Landmark Legislation: In her last year, Sylvia spearheaded the campaign for New York's Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SUNDAY), which mandated protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity across various sectors.

  "In the last year of her life, Sylvia campaigned for New York's Sexual Orientation Non Discrimination act, which is also referred to as saunda. And that act prohibits discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, credit, and the exercise of civil rights." [32:28]

• Health Decline and Passing: Battling end-stage liver disease, Sylvia remained steadfast in her advocacy until her death on February 19, 2002, at the age of 51. Remarkably, SUNDAY was signed into law just months after her passing, a testament to her enduring influence.

  "She died on February 19, 2002, of liver disease at the age of 51. Sonda was signed into law on December 17 of that same year." [33:44]

• Posthumous Honors and Ongoing Impact: In recognition of her contributions, New York City designated a corner in the West Village as Sylvia Rivera Way. Additionally, organizations such as the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and Sylvia's Place continue her mission, providing legal services and support to transgender and gender non-conforming individuals.

  "Sylvia Rivera Law Project's work focuses on transgender, intersex and gender non conforming people, particularly those who are low income people and people of color. They provide legal services, public education, and advocacy for public policy reform." [34:38]

• Legacy of Resistance and Advocacy: Sylvia Rivera's life embodies the relentless pursuit of equality and justice. Her refusal to conform to societal norms and her dedication to marginalized communities have inspired generations of activists.

  "She continued to be really vocal about the schism between the gay community and the trans community in the years before her death... Her legacy is extremely important, not just for having been part of the gay rights movement, but for specifically when it comes to working with homeless young people who don't really have anywhere else to go." [35:29]

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Conclusion

Sylvia Rivera's journey from a troubled childhood to a beacon of hope for transgender and gender non-conforming individuals underscores the complexities and challenges within the broader LGBTQ+ movement. Her unwavering commitment to justice, despite personal hardships and societal exclusion, cements her status as a foundational figure in the fight for equality. Holly and Tracy's exploration of Sylvia's life not only honors her memory but also serves as a poignant reminder of the ongoing struggles and triumphs within the LGBTQ+ community.

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Notable Quotes

• Sylvia Rivera on Labels:

  "I'm tired of being labeled. I don't even like the label transgender. I just want to be who I am. I'm living the way Sylvia wants to live." [29:05]

• Sylvia Rivera on the Struggle:

  "I still struggle and I still continue the struggle. I will struggle till the day I die. And my main struggle right now is that my community will seek the rights to that are justly ours." [32:28]

• Tracy B. Wilson on Sylvia's Legacy:

  "Her legacy is extremely important, not just for having been part of the gay rights movement, but for specifically when it comes to working with homeless young people who don't really have anywhere else to go." [35:29]

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Key Takeaways

• Intersectional Activism: Sylvia Rivera's work intersected multiple facets of social justice, emphasizing the need for inclusive movements that address diverse identities and experiences.

• Resilience in Adversity: Despite facing personal trauma, societal rejection, and systemic barriers, Sylvia's resilience fueled her relentless advocacy.

• Enduring Impact: Organizations established in Sylvia's name continue to champion the rights and welfare of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, ensuring her legacy lives on.

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Sylvia Rivera's story is a testament to the power of individual courage and the enduring quest for equality. Her life’s work continues to inspire and guide the ongoing fight for LGBTQ+ rights worldwide.

Transcript

[Tracy B. Wilson]

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[Holly Frey]

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[Enrique Santos]

Today in 2012, 16 year old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do homework. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice.

[Holly Frey]

I would ask my husband, do you want me to stop? He was like, no, keep fighting.

[Enrique Santos]

After nearly a decade, a breakthrough changed everything. This is Cold Case Files Miami. Stories of families who never stopped fighting. Listen to Cold Case Files Miami on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ed Helms]

I'm Robert Evans and on my show behind the Bastards this week we have one of our worst subjects ever. David Berg, founder of the Children of God cult, who we'll be talking about with special guest Ed Helms. He's not just like a weird religious cult leader. He was like fusing a bunch of hippie ideology in with this kind of like evangelic Christianity Pentecostal preaching in the mid century. He's a very weird guy, but yeah, I'll just get into it.

[Robert Evans]

Like nothing you just said makes sense.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

That doesn't, right?

[Robert Evans]

But that's the beauty of cults.

[Ed Helms]

Listen to behind the bastards on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Happy Saturday. The Stonewall uprising started on June 28, 1969, or 56 years ago today on the day that we are publishing this episode. We talked about this in our episode on Sylvia Rivera, which first came out on October 8, 2014.

[Holly Frey]

That is today's classic. And since it is more than 10 years old, we just really feel compelled to note that language has evolved about some of the things that are part of this episode, like how to talk about homelessness and addiction and whether Stonewall is best described as a riot, an uprising, a rebellion, or some other term. At this point, there are people who feel really passionately that Stonewall should be described as more of an uprising, and ones who feel just as strongly that Stonewall was a riot.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

So enjoy and also happy Pride.

[Holly Frey]

Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson, and I'm home. So today's subject, which is transgender activist Sylvia Rivera, is often compared to Rosa Parks. Like, I would say 70% of the articles that I read researching this episode compared her to Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks, as you probably know, became famous in part for refusing to give up her bus seat on a segregated bus. And Sylvia Rivera became famous in part for purportedly throwing the first bottle at a police officer during the Stonewall riots. But really, Rosa Parks and Sylvia Rivera almost could not be more different from each other. Rosa Parks's case was chosen specifically to try to overturn bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, precisely because she seemed really polite. She was married, she was soft spoken, she went to church, and she had no criminal record. So basically, there was nothing in her background that might turn white people off to the idea of that she deserved the same basic civil rights that they did. Sylvia Rivera, on the other hand, has a lot more in common with Claudette Colvin, who was also arrested for refusing to give up a seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery. But Claudette Colvin did not become the household name that Rosa Parks did because she was an unmarried, pregnant teenager who had a reputation for being a troublemaker. Civil rights leaders deliberately didn't pursue her case because they knew it would be a hard one to win. They held out for a more so called respectable plaintiff instead. And that brings us to Sylvia Rivera. In the years immediately after the Stonewall riots, she campaigned bravely and stridently and vocally for the rights of gay and transgender people. Although the term transgender, which is used to describe people whose gender identity doesn't match up with the sex that they were assigned when they were born, that word had not been coined yet. But Sylvia was also loud and aggressive and angry and poor, sometimes even homeless. She had a history of sex, work, and drug addictions. Her mannerisms were really flamboyant. In your face. So when the gay rights movement started trending towards so called respectability. Sylvia got really pushed to the sidelines along with a lot of other transgender people. She refused to be put in a box. And so she wound up being excluded from the very movement that she was fighting for. And she was, for decades, pretty much forgotten about. So before we get started, there's a word of caution about this story. Because Sylvia ran away from home when she was only 11, some of the events that happened to her, especially in her young life, are disturbing. So parents and teachers, before you share this with young people, I recommend listening to it yourself first. And as a second note, some of the language that was used at the time that Sylvia lived and that she used about herself isn't the preferred language that we use today. And we'll sort of point out those as they come up.

[Holly Frey]

So now that you've been warned, we will jump in as we usually do at the very beginning. Sylvia was born on July 2nd of 1951. Her mother was Venezuelan and her father was Puerto Rican.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Sylvia's mother committed suicide by eating rat poison when Sylvia was three. She also tried to kill Sylvia at that time, but Sylvia survived and went on to be raised by her grandmother, Viajita. Viajita raised both Sylvia and Sylvia's half sister.

[Holly Frey]

Viejita was essentially functioning as a single parent. Her husband had abandoned her, and Sylvia's father, who had also abandoned the family, was not paying child support.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Sylvia's grandmother was also very strict. Although she taught Sylvia to cook and to sew and to knit, she really did not like it when Sylvia started wearing girls clothes. Viajita would punish Sylvia, sometimes physically, for wearing makeup and for dressing in girls clothing.

[Holly Frey]

And as Sylvia described in the oral history, making History, the Struggle for Gay and lesbian equal rights, 1945-1990, her grandmother would say, quote, we don't do this. You're one of the boys. I want you to be a mechanic. And Sylvia would answer, no, I want to be a hairdresser, and I want to wear these clothes.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

From Sylvia's point of view, her grandmother also didn't like her because her skin was too dark. She had heard her grandmother say that she wanted a white granddaughter instead.

[Holly Frey]

And the struggle between the two of them went on until at the age of 10, Sylvia tried to commit suicide by taking her grandmother's pills. She wound up instead in the hospital for two months.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Sylvia also faced bullying and harassment at school and in the neighborhood as well. The other children and their neighbors didn't like her wearing girls clothing, and they didn't like her effeminate mannerisms.

[Holly Frey]

Feeling lonely, isolated, and desperately at odds with everyone around her, Sylvia left home at age 11. The straw that really broke the camel's back was seeing how others treatment of her was affecting her grandmother. Even though their relationship was often contentious and, and strained and even violent, Sylvia did not like seeing her grandmother suffer over the way people talked about her.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

After she ran away, Sylvia went to 42nd street in New York City, which was a haven for crossdressers and street walkers. She had no other means to support herself, and so she turned to sex work. And I want to make it clear that there are people who choose to go into sex work. But at this time, Sylvia was 11 and she had no other options. The area's drag queens pretty much adopted her, and they're the ones who gave her the name Sylvia. Sylvia was arrested frequently, and her grandmother would come and bail her out.

[Holly Frey]

A few days shy of Sylvia's 18th birthday, she went to the Stonewall Inn for the first time. And this was June 28th of 1969.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

The Stonewall Inn was, like many of New York's bars that catered to the gay community at the time, owned by the Mafia. Homosexuality was a crime, and so was cross dressing. So pretty much the only people who were willing to operate businesses that catered to this demographic were also themselves criminals.

[Holly Frey]

Gay bars were rated on a regular basis. Standard operating procedure was that the police would come in, they would make arrests and confiscations, they would then collect a payoff, and then they would leave and padlock the door behind them. Not long after the police had gone, members of the Mafia would come by, cut the padlock off, they would then restock the alcohol supply, and business would start right back up. So for the people who didn't wind up getting arrested, it was more of a hassle and an interruption to their evening's revelry than anything else.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

For people who did get arrested, it could be way, way harder. Not just for the fact that they were taken to jail, but often in jail. They were then taunted and sometimes beaten and sometimes assaulted by other people who were in the jail. On June 28, when the police came in, most of the patrons went to the park across the street to wait, and they were tired of being hassled. A lot of people say that this was because it was the same week that Judy Garland died. And that doesn't seem through the oral histories to actually add up necessarily. But yeah, it's more of a point.

[Holly Frey]

I think, a coincidence than a cause and effect situation.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Right. At some point, somebody started throwing coins at the police officers, yelling things like, here's your payoff. Come get some more.

[Holly Frey]

And then things started to escalate. People started throwing bottles and Molotov cocktails. Sylvia is widely cited as the first to do this, but near the end of her life, she really worked to try to dispel this idea, saying that she was, in fact, the second to throw a bottle.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Soon the police were pinned down inside the bar with the protesters outside, and the riot went on until reinforcements arrived and dispersed the crowd.

[Holly Frey]

The Stonewall riot wasn't remotely the first event in the modern gay rights movement. It wasn't even the first riot in an establishment that was frequented by LGBT people. An early, earlier example was a riot at Cooper's Donuts in Los Angeles in 1965. And in that event, drag queens and gay men, many of them black or Latino, fought back against police, first by throwing donuts, which sounds sort of funny, and then with hand to hand fighting, much less funny. In San Francisco, a picket protest among LGBT protesters turned into a riot at Compton's cafeteria in 1966. But Stonewall really did act as a sort of tipping point and a rallying cry.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

It's definitely the most famous today for sure. So there are several things about the riots and Sylvia's presence there that are cause for debate today. One is just how much of the Stonewall Inns clientele was made up of cross dressers and transgender people. Now, as we mentioned before, the term transgender had not really been coined at this point in history, but when it was coined about 10 years later, a lot of the people who had identified as cross dressers or as transvestites at the time then went on to identify as transgender. So we're going to keep talking about both cross dressers and transgender people both for the rest of the episode, because they are two different things. Cross dressing is about the clothes you have on, and transgender is about your gender expression. So your expression of the. The gender that you. That you are inwardly versus the clothes that you have on your body. In Sylvia's own words, cross dressers could only get in if they knew somebody, because cross dressers were really frequently targeted by the police. So a lot of businesses felt like it was too much of a hassle to deal with them. Other people have characterized the Stonewall Inn as a haven for cross dressers and for transgender people, and there are reputable historians on both sides.

[Holly Frey]

Another bone of contention is actually whether Sylvia herself was even there. She says she was, and of course, she's often credited with being the first bottle thrower, but historians have not been able to corroborate her presence there through eyewitness accounts.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

In the end, it doesn't necessarily matter how many transgender patrons the Stonewall Inn had or whether Sylvia was actually there that night. What does matter is that Sylvia and the rest of the cross dressing and transgender community became vocal, aggressive campaigners for the rights of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and all manner of people who just didn't conform to gender norms. They were in many ways the people who were the most visibly on the forefront of the fight for equality and for civil rights.

[Holly Frey]

And we're going to talk more about what happened after Stonewall, right after a word from our sponsor, if that is cool with Tracy.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

It is.

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[Enrique Santos]

In 2012, 16 year old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do home. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice.

[Holly Frey]

The call was horrible. I replay it over my head all the time.

[Enrique Santos]

For years, Brian's family kept asking questions while a culture of silence kept the case cold.

[Holly Frey]

Snitches get stitches. Everybody knows it.

[Enrique Santos]

Still, they refused to give up.

[Holly Frey]

I would ask my husband, do you want me just let this go? He said, no, keep fighting.

[Enrique Santos]

I told her I would never give.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Up on this case.

[Enrique Santos]

And then, after a decade of waiting, a breakthrough.

[Holly Frey]

We received a phone call that was bittersweet because it's a call that we've been waiting for for a very long time.

[Enrique Santos]

I'm Enrique Santos. This is Cold Case Files Miami, a podcast about justice, persistence, and the families who never stopped fighting. Listen to Cold Case Files Miami as part of the My Cultura Podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Foreign Sylvia Rivera had already been active in racial equality and anti war causes before the Stonewall riot. And after the riot, she immediately passionately turned her attention to the growing movement for gay rights.

[Holly Frey]

2 Gay rights organizations formed in New York in the wake of the riot. That was the Gay Activists alliance and the Gay Liberation Front, and Sylvia was active in both of those groups.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

As part of the Gay Activists Alliance, Sylvia petitioned the city of New York for an anti discrimination bill, and she was arrested while trying to get signatures. When she appeared before the judge, he immediately let her go. He recognized that with all of the social turmoil that was going on in the United States at that point, it would be a really unwise PR move for him to jail someone who was getting signatures for a petition.

[Holly Frey]

Sylvia also testified before the city council to try to get the bill passed.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

However, as the bill was being negotiated, others in the gay community agreed to drop protections for cross dressers from the bill in the hope that it would be more likely to pass. Sylvia and many of the other cross dressing and transgender citizens of New York felt really deeply betrayed by this. They had been working, campaigning, and getting arrested and sometimes facing abuse and violence and sexual assault in jail once they had been arrested, fighting for these causes. And at this point, it felt like they had done this for a cause that had then turned their back on them.

[Holly Frey]

And it didn't help that the bill, minus discrimination protections for gender expression, did not actually pass until 15 years later. So that would have been 1986. So this concession really, in the end, was not much of a help.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Along the way, the Gay Activists alliance specifically dropped rights for the cross dressing communities from its mission entirely.

[Holly Frey]

Consequently, after being excluded from other gay rights organizations, Sylvia and her longtime friend Marsha P. Johnson co founded the Street Transvestite action revolutionaries, or STAR, in the fall of 1970, essentially, the cross dressing and transgender community had begun to feel excluded by other gay and lesbian rights organizations, and so they formed their own.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

As a side note, to a lot of people today, the word transvestite has connotations that are. Are offensive. So people. A lot of people prefer the word crossdresser, but at the time, it was a word that they were using to talk about themselves frequently.

[Holly Frey]

Yeah, or you also hear drag, which is in there, and they all can get a little fuzzy. And there's still ongoing debate over, you know, terminology and who should use what. To some degree, that's still being worked out.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Yes. So we're not at all using those terms to be disrespectful, but because that's. Those are the words that Sylvia and Marsha were using to describe themselves. So Sylvia and Marsha's next step was to start what was known as Star House. And this was an outreach effort for the so called street queens. These were young homeless gay youth, Many of whom later went on to identify as transgender, and many of whom were also people of color.

[Holly Frey]

And they originally operated Star House out of the back of a truck. And then they started renting a building at 213 East Second street and they fixed that up. And there they provided shelter, food, and guidance for homeless transgender youth. And Sylvia and Marsha really became mother figures for these kids.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

They had a dance to try to raise some money to fund their operation, but for the most part, Sylvia and Marcia kept the place running. By doing sex work, they tried to protect all of the young people who were in their care from being involved in the sex trade at all. However, many of the youth wound up helping Star House's efforts by stealing food.

[Holly Frey]

And eventually, you know, this is not really a workable business model. So Star House was evicted from the property for non payment of rent. And before they left, they took the refrigerator and they destroyed all of the improvements that they'd made in the building out of a sort of turnabout as fair play mindset.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

And I feel like we should point out that the reason that they were having to turn to stealing and sex work to fund their operations is because their entire lives at this point were not only illegal, but also specifically targeted by the police and other people for harassment. So that was sort of what it had come to by being excluded from so many other social organizations that were working to help homeless people and others in New York.

[Holly Frey]

Yeah, it certainly was not like a, oh, we don't want to pursue legitimate means of gaining money. They just did not have opportunities to do so.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Right. And that continues to be a problem in a lot of areas today. Throughout this time, Sylvia was also active in other radical organizations as well, including the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords, which is a Puerto Rican nationalist activism group.

[Holly Frey]

In 1973, Sylvia was supposed to speak at Christopher Street Liberation Day, which was a festival to commemorate the anniversary of the Stonewall riots. However, radical feminists tried to keep Sylvia from the stage because they viewed her wearing women's clothing as sexist. In particular, activist Gin o' Leary, a former nun and lesbian feminist, spoke out against Sylvia taking part.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Sylvia's response was to physically grab the microphone and to talk anyway with a lot of vigor and profanity behind her words. She spoke very candidly and angrily about how the gay community was benefiting from the crossdressers work while simultaneously excluding them from their successes. As repayment, I do want to note that Jean o' Leary went on to soften her views about cross dressers and transgender people later in her life. I don't want to paint her as a terrible person who went around oppressing other people. She did later on express embarrassment and shame that she had really basically kicked people who were already down.

[Holly Frey]

Yeah. And the drag queens that were supposed to perform at this rally were also barred from performing.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

After this incident, Sylvia moved to Tarrytown, New York and lived with a boyfriend. Since she was no longer in the city, she became less prominent in its civil rights and gay rights efforts. But she did make her way back every year for the parades and festivals that commemorated the end of the Stonewall riot.

[Holly Frey]

In the interim, she led a relatively quiet life. She mostly worked food service jobs for a while, but eventually, unfortunately, she began abusing drugs again and wound up homeless.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

And journalists who were working to chronicle the gay rights movement's earlier years and transgender people's contribution to the gay rights movement found her living on the streets in New York in the early 1990s. This actually marked her return to activism and to the public eye, which we'll talk about after another brief ad break.

[Robert Evans]

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[Enrique Santos]

In 2012, 16 year old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do homework. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice.

[Holly Frey]

The call was horrible. I replayed over my head all the time.

[Enrique Santos]

For years, Brian's family kept asking questions while a culture of silence kept the case cold.

[Holly Frey]

Snitches get stitches. Everybody knows it.

[Enrique Santos]

Still, they refused to give up.

[Holly Frey]

I would ask my husband, do you want me just let this go? He said, no, keep fighting.

[Enrique Santos]

I told her I would never give.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Up on this case.

[Enrique Santos]

And then, after a decade of waiting, a breakthrough.

[Holly Frey]

We received a phone call that was bittersweet because it's a call that we've been waiting for for a very long time.

[Enrique Santos]

I'm Enrique Santos. This is Cold Case Files Miami, a podcast about justice, persistence, and the families who never stopped fighting. Listen to Cold Case Files Miami as part of the My Cultura Podcast Network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ed Helms]

I'm Robert Evans and on my podcast behind the Bastards, we talk about the worst people in all of history. We've discussed a lot of horrible monsters in our time, but this week we have one of the very worst we'll ever talk about. David Berg, founder of a cult called the Children of God. We'll talk about all of his horrible crimes with special guest Ed Helms. He's not just like a weird religious cult leader, he was like fusing a bunch of hippie ideology in with this kind of like, evangelical Christianity, Pentecostal preaching in the mid century. He's a very weird guy, but, yeah, I'll just get into it.

[Robert Evans]

Like, nothing you just said makes sense.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

That doesn't say right.

[Robert Evans]

But that's the beauty of culture.

[Ed Helms]

Listen to behind the bastards on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

It's tricky to talk about some of the issues that are in today's episode because the terminology that we used to talk about it today, some of it was coined basically halfway through Sylvia Rivera's life. It's also tricky to talk about Sylvia Rivera's identity so specifically because she really, really resisted the idea of labels. For a lot of her life, she referred to herself as a transvestite. And as we said earlier, that's a word that a lot of people don't prefer to be used anymore. The term transgender came around about halfway through her life, but she wasn't totally comfortable calling herself that. Toward the end of her life, she said, quote, I'm tired of being labeled. I don't even like the label transgender. I just want to be who I am. I'm living the way Sylvia wants to live.

[Holly Frey]

But despite her lack of affinity for labels, Sylvia was undoubtedly an advocate for rights and protections for transgender people throughout the last 10 years or so of her life.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

We talked earlier about Sylvia founding the organization Star with Marsha P. Johnson. Marsha's body was actually found in the Hudson river in 1992. Police originally said that it was a suicide, but they eventually opened a homicide investigation. And when I say eventually, I mean two decades later. @ the time of her death, Sylvia and other friends of Marsha's had said that she was not suicidal and that they had witnessed her being harassed by someone near where her body was found. Shortly before her death in 1994, Sylvia.

[Holly Frey]

Was asked to lead the 25th anniversary Stonewall March. That same year, she advocated for Martin Duberman's publishers to translate his LGBT history book Stonewall into Spanish. But according to her, she was told it would not sell well in, quote, Third world countries, in Latin countries.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

In her last years, she and her partner, Julia Murray, lived and work at a place called Transy House. This is a collective and shelter for transgender youth, and they joined this collective in 1997. In 1998, Sylvia was arrested during a memorial for Matthew Shepard in New York. So if you are not familiar with his story, Matthew Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming at Laramie. Who was tortured, tied to a fence post, and left to die as part of an anti gay hate crime. He wound up dying of his injuries a few days after he was found tied to the fence post. According to Sylvia's own account, a police officer basically spread the word to arrest her first because she was known for being very vocal at these kinds of demonstrations.

[Holly Frey]

In 1999, Sylvia spoke at the World Pride rally in Rome.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

In 2000, another trans woman named Amanda Milan was stabbed in the neck and killed on 42nd Street. Sylvia organized a series of rallies and protests surrounding her death and the trial of her killers.

[Holly Frey]

Sylvia continued to be really vocal about the schism between the gay community and the trans community in the years before her death and about a year before she died, at a talk given before the Latino gay men of New York, she said, yes, we can adopt children. All well and good, that's fine. I would love to have children. I would love to marry my lover over there. She pointed to Julia Murray. But for political reasons, I will not do it because I don't feel that I have to fit in that closet of normal straight society which the gay mainstream is going towards.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

In the same speech, she described the trans community's participation in the gay rights movement this way. Quote, we were determined that evening, that evening being the night of the Stonewall riots, that we were going to be a liberated, free community, which we did acquire that actually, I'll change the we. You have acquired your liberation, your freedom from that night. Myself, I've got expletive deleted, just like I had back then. But I still struggle and I still continue the struggle. I will struggle till the day I die. And my main struggle right now is that my community will seek the rights to that are justly ours.

[Holly Frey]

In the last year of her life, Sylvia campaigned for New York's Sexual Orientation Non Discrimination act, which is also referred to as saunda. And that act prohibits discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, credit, and the exercise of civil rights. It includes protections for transgender people.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Sylvia was not exaggerating when she said that she was going to work until she died for this. Her last meeting about Sonda, when she met with city officials for the last time, took place in a hospital bed when she was in end stage liver disease and in great pain.

[Holly Frey]

She died on February 19, 2002, of liver disease at the age of 51. Sonda was signed into law on December 17 of that same year.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

On November 14 of 2005, the City of New York named the Corner of Christopher and Hudson streets in the West Village. Sylvia Rivera Way Today, the Sylvia Rivera.

[Holly Frey]

Food Pantry, which is under the auspices of the Metropolitan Community Church of New York, which serves the working poor as well as people with HIV through a specialized pantry program that's designed for people on antiretroviral therapies. These are higher in protein and easy to prepare. It also provides nutritional information and kind of meal guidance for all of the populations that it serves.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Sylvia's Place is a Metropolitan Community Church of New York services organization for homeless youth.

[Holly Frey]

Sylvia Rivera Law Project's work focuses on transgender, intersex and gender non conforming people, particularly those who are low income people and people of color. They provide legal services, public education, and advocacy for public policy reform.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

She had a big legacy. She did have a big legacy. She had a big legacy that I think her name is not necessarily well known in the context of the gay rights movement, unless you are pretty familiar with it. The oral history that we referenced making history. She is actually the only transgender person who's included and she's referred to with male pronouns the whole time and is classified as a drag queen, which is. She did call herself a drag queen, but that's kind of limiting in how she actually viewed herself.

[Holly Frey]

Well, I mean, since she was not a fan of the labels and she identified in her life as Sylvia. I'm like, a lot of drag performers will still maintain their, you know, in many cases, the old school drag performers that were mostly men and then presented as female for performance, they still maintained that male Persona, whereas she did not at all.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Totally. One of the reasons that I wanted. There were a couple reasons that I wanted to do this episode, and one is that I think the campaign for transgender rights has been increasingly present in the news over the last year or so. In terms of mainstream news coverage, it's definitely not something that has been unknown, but when it comes to like the really mainstream news outlets. And the other is a lot of the things that Sylvia and the young people that she and Marsha were looking after, you know, 20 years ago, a lot of those issues still really exist today. Like there are still a lot of homeless transgender youth whose. Who've basically been thrown out of their homes by their parents and don't really have anywhere else to turn. So I think her legacy is extremely important, not just for having been part of the gay rights movement, but for specifically when it comes to working with homeless young people who don't really have anywhere else to go.

[Holly Frey]

Yeah, it's an extremely high risk community in terms of violence, falling into sex work, you know, just really being in at risk situations.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. Since this episode is out of the archive, if you heard an email address or a Facebook URL or something similar over the course of the show, that could be obsolete now. Our current email address is historypodcastradio.com you can find us all over social media mistinhistory and you can subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Enrique Santos]

In 2012, 16 year old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do home. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice.

[Holly Frey]

I would ask my husband, do you want me to stop? He was like, no, keep fighting.

[Enrique Santos]

After nearly a decade, a breakthrough changed everything. This is Cold Case Files Miami. Stories of families who never stopped fighting. Listen to Cold Case Files Miami on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ed Helms]

I'm Robert Evans and on my show behind the Bastards this week we have one of our worst subjects ever, David Byrd, founder of the Children of God, who we'll be talking about with special guest Ed Helms. He's not just like a weird religious cult leader. He was like fusing a bunch of hippie ideology in with this kind of like evangelical Christianity Pentecostal preaching in the mid century. He's a very weird guy. But yeah, I'll just get into it here.

[Robert Evans]

Like nothing you just said makes sense.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

That doesn't sound right, but that's the beauty of cults.

[Ed Helms]

Listen to behind the bastards on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Holly Frey]

A body, a suspect, and 100 years of silence. Buried Bones is a podcast about the forgotten crimes history tried to leave behind.

[Enrique Santos]

A common misperception about serial predators is that every single time they commit a crime, they commit it the same way.

[Holly Frey]

The past is a way of talking.

[Robert Evans]

If you know what to listen for.

[Enrique Santos]

New episodes every Wednesday on the exactly.

[Holly Frey]

Right now listen to Buried phones on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever.

[Robert Evans]

You get your podcasts. In 2022, a group of divers were.

[Holly Frey]

Sucked into an oil pipe and trapped deep beneath the sea.

[Robert Evans]

They could have been saved, but they weren't. Following their story has led us to.

[Holly Frey]

Lucrative contracts, failing safety standards and secretive political relationships. As we ask, why were those men left to die? This is Pipeline.

[Robert Evans]

Episodes are released weekly.

[Holly Frey]

Search for pipeline on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

This is an iHeart podcast.