Stormé Delarverie was born in 1920 to a black mother and a white father. She faced bullying as a child because of her skincolor and mixed background. As an adult, she toured as the MC and only drag king with the Jewel Box Revue, North America’s first racially integrated drag revue in this era of racial segregation. Stormé is believed to be the butch lesbian that started the uprising in front of the Stonewall Inn in 1969, which was the first pride. She was dressed in “mens clothing” and, like many others “cross dressing”, got detained for it that night. When she was escorted to the police wagon, she fought back and escaped a few times so the police had to catch her repeatedly. At one time, she fought four policemen alone. They hit her on the head with a baton and, bleeding from that, she finally was heaved into the wagon. She allegedly sparked the riots when she shouted “Why don’t you guys do something?” at bystanders while fighting the police.
After the riots, she worked as a bouncer for lesbian clubs and a volunteer street patrol, “guarding the lesbians of the village” into her 80s. She also was a member of the Stonewall Veteran’s Association and Vice President there for 2 years. In addition to her fight for the rights of LGBTQ+ people and protecting them, she also organized and performed at benefits for battered women and children.
When asked why she did all that, she said: “Somebody has to care. People say, ‘Why do you still do that?’ I said, ‘It’s very simple. If people didn’t care about me when I was growing up, with my mother being black, raised in the south.’ I said, ‘I wouldn’t be here.'”
It’s very important that we realize today that the first pride was an uprising against inhumane injustice, and it was led by black people and people of color. The rights we have today as an LGBTQIA+ community we have because they chose to not stay silent but fight back. Just as the riots back then were necessary, the riots now are. Black people should be able to live in safety and peace. Black Lives Matter. And if we don’t acknowledge that and change something after hundreds of years of oppression, they have every right to fight back the way they see fit.
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