:Marsha P. Johnson

Marsha P. Johnson was born Malcolm Michaels Jr. on August 24, 1945, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to father Malcolm Michaels Sr., an assembly line worker at General Motors, and mother Alberta (née Claiborne) Michaels, a housekeeper. She was raised alongside six siblings, and the family attended Mount Teman African Methodist Episcopal Church.{{sfn|Chan|2018}}{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: events occur at 5:54. Note - Source misspells church name as "Mount Teamon". Website of church has correct spelling: [https://mttemaname.org/ Mount Teman AME Church] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709185935/https://mttemaname.org/ |date=July 9, 2021 }}. Also: in [https://books.google.com/books?id=ObluDwAAQBAJ A queer history of the United States for young people] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803154607/https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Queer_History_of_the_United_States_for/ObluDwAAQBAJ?gbpv=1 |date=August 3, 2022 }} (Boston, 2019) Michael Bronski writes, "[https://books.google.com/books?id=ObluDwAAQBAJ&q=Marsha%20P%20Johnson%20Catholic Johnson was raised Roman Catholic] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803154607/https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Queer_History_of_the_United_States_for/ObluDwAAQBAJ?gbpv=1&bsq=Marsha%20P%20Johnson%20Catholic |date=August 3, 2022 }}." But seems to be alone in this claim.{{cite web |url=https://worldqueerstory.org/tag/african-methodist-episcopal-church/ |title=Heroes of Stonewall: Marsha P. Johnson |work=World Queerstory |date=June 7, 2019 |access-date=July 7, 2021 |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709183526/https://worldqueerstory.org/tag/african-methodist-episcopal-church/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last=Coke |first=Hope |url=https://www.tatler.com/article/who-is-marsha-p-johnson-drag-queen-gay-activist/ |title=The inspiring life of activist and drag queen Marsha P. Johnson - A passionate advocate for gay rights, Marsha was an instrumental figure in the Stonewall uprising |work=Tatler |date=June 25, 2020 |access-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-date=July 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711083900/https://www.tatler.com/article/who-is-marsha-p-johnson-drag-queen-gay-activist |url-status=live }} Commenting on this upbringing, Johnson said, "I got married to Jesus Christ when I was sixteen years old, still in high school."

Johnson first began wearing dresses at the age of five but stopped temporarily due to harassment by boys who lived nearby. In a 1992 interview, she described being the young victim of rape by a thirteen-year-old boy.{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: events occur at 4:21 and 4:41.{{harvnb|Chan|2018}}: "Later, Johnson said in an interview toward the end of her life, she was sexually assaulted by another boy, who was around 13." After this, she described the idea of being gay as "some sort of dream", rather than something that seemed possible, and so chose to remain sexually inactive until leaving for New York City at age 17.{{cite web |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2019/06/04/stonewall-1979-the-drag-of-politics/ |title=Stonewall 1979: The Drag of Politics |work=The Village Voice |last=Watson |first=Steve |date=June 15, 1979 |access-date=June 23, 2019 |archive-date=June 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627163102/https://www.villagevoice.com/2019/06/04/stonewall-1979-the-drag-of-politics/ |url-status=live }} Johnson's mother reportedly said that being homosexual was like being "lower than a dog",{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 46:52. but Johnson said that Michaels was unaware of the gay community. Johnson's mother also encouraged her to find a "homosexual billionaire" boyfriend or husband to take care of (Johnson) for life, a goal Johnson often talked about.{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 46:35.

Johnson attended Edison High School (now the Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Academy) in Elizabeth before dropping out in her senior year. In December 1962, Johnson entered the United States Navy under her birth name and stayed for six months where she eventually earned a GED and was thereafter honorably discharged in June 1963. After her discharge, Johnson left home for New York City with "$15 and a bag of clothes", settling at Greenwich Village, where she waited tables.{{sfn|Chan|2018}}{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 47:22.{{sfn|Carter|2010}}

After she began spending time with the street hustlers near the Howard Johnson's restaurant at Sixth Avenue and 8th Street, Johnson's life changed. Johnson came out and said, "my life has been built around sex and gay liberation, being a drag queen".

Johnson initially used the moniker "Black Marsha", but later decided on the drag queen name "Marsha P. Johnson", getting Johnson from the Howard Johnson's restaurant on 42nd Street, sarcastically stating that the P stood for "pay it no mind" though in a 1979 interview, she revealed it initially stood for "Piola".{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 37:22; {{harvnb|Carter|2010}}: "In the early days she tended to go out mainly in semidrag and call herself Black Marsha. (When Johnson later dropped the Black and started calling herself Marsha P. Johnson, with Johnson sarcastically stating the P stood for 'Pay it no mind')"{{cite news |url=http://worldofwonder.net/comingattractions-death-life-marsha-p-johnson/ |title=#LGBTQ: Doc Film, "The Death & Life of Marsha P. Johnson" Debuts At Tribeca Film Fest – The WOW Report |newspaper=The Wow Report |access-date=July 9, 2017 |date=April 6, 2017 |archive-date=February 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207031743/https://worldofwonder.net/comingattractions-death-life-marsha-p-johnson/ |url-status=live }} Johnson said the phrase once to a judge, who was amused by it, leading to Johnson's release. Johnson preferred female pronouns for herself. The term "transgender" was not in widespread use during Johnson's lifetime and she described herself as gay, a transvestite, and a queen (referring to drag queen or "street queen"). According to Susan Stryker, a professor of human gender and sexuality studies at the University of Arizona, Johnson's gender expression could be called gender non-conforming.{{harvnb|Chan|2018}}: "Many transgender people have also come to hail Johnson, and her longtime friend and colleague Sylvia Rivera, as pioneering heroes. (The term transgender was not in wide use in Johnson's lifetime; she usually used female pronouns for herself, but also referred to herself as gay, as a transvestite or simply as a queen.) 'Marsha P. Johnson could be perceived as the most marginalized of people — black, queer, gender-nonconforming, poor,' said Susan Stryker ..."

In 1970, Marsha gave an interview to radio station WBAI, where Johnson stated she was undergoing feminizing hormone therapy with the goal of getting gender surgery.{{Cite news |date=January 6, 2020 |title=Podcast unearths earliest known recordings of trans icons Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-edition-1.5416232/podcast-unearths-earliest-known-recordings-of-trans-icons-marsha-p-johnson-and-sylvia-rivera-1.5416240 |work=CBC Radio}} In an interview with Allen Young, in Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation, Johnson discussed being a member of the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR). Speaking on identity, "A drag queen is one that usually goes to a ball, and that's the only time she gets dressed up. Transvestites live in drag. A transsexual spends most of her life in drag. I never come out of drag to go anywhere. Everywhere I go I get all dressed up. A transvestite is still like a boy, very manly looking, a feminine boy. You wear drag here and there. When you're a transsexual, you have hormone treatments and you're on your way to a sex change, and you never come out of female clothes."{{Cite book|last=Scarpi|first=Bebe|title=Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation|publisher=New York University Press|year=1992|editor-last=Jay|editor-first=Karla|edition=20th|location=New York|pages=114–118|quote=A drag queen is one that usually goes to a ball, and that's the only time she gets dressed up. Transvestites live in drag. A transsexual spends most of her life in drag. I never come out of drag to go anywhere. Everywhere I go I get all dressed up. A transvestite is still like a boy, very manly looking, a feminine boy. You wear drag here and there. When you're a transsexual, you have hormone treatments and you're on your way to a sex change, and you never come out of female clothes.}} Also discussed are Johnson's experiences of the dangers of working as a street prostitute in drag, and the death of Johnson's partner.{{clarification needed| reason= Johnson died before two men were able to marry| date=January 2024}} Johnson and Rivera's interviews and writings in this era also at times used terminology in ways that were sarcastic and camp, other times serious, or all of the above at once.

Johnson's style of drag was not serious ("high drag" or "show drag"), due to being unable to afford to purchase clothing from expensive stores.{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 10:11. She received leftover flowers after sleeping under tables used for sorting flowers in Manhattan's Flower District, and was known for wearing crowns of fresh flowers.{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 8:42. Johnson was tall, slender and often dressed in flowing robes and shiny dresses, red plastic high heels and bright wigs, which tended to draw attention.{{sfn|Chan|2018}} As Edmund White wrote in his 1979 Village Voice article "The Politics of Drag", Johnson also liked dressing in ways that would display "the interstice between masculine and feminine". A feature photo of Johnson in this article shows Johnson in a flowing wig and makeup, and a translucent shirt, pants and parka – highlighting the ways that, quoting Kate Millett's Sexual Politics, Johnson is "both masculine and feminine at once — or male, but feminine."{{cite web |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2019/06/04/stonewall-1979-the-politics-of-drag/ |title=The Politics of Drag |work=The Village Voice |last=White |first=Edmund |date=June 25, 1979 |archive-date=June 4, 2019 |access-date=June 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190604161732/https://www.villagevoice.com/2019/06/04/stonewall-1979-the-politics-of-drag/ |url-status=live }}

There is some existing footage of Johnson doing full, glamorous, "high drag" on stage, but most of her performance work was with groups that were more grassroots, comedic, and political.{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLU3K3znzAw|title=Marsha P. Johnson 'A Beloved Star!'|access-date=July 1, 2019|archive-date=April 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200412101520/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLU3K3znzAw&gl=US&hl=en|url-status=live}} – Randolfe Wicker. Published on January 22, 2007. Accessed July 1, 2019. Note: Collection of brief clips from a number of different performances. Johnson sang and performed as a member of J. Camicias' New York-based international drag performance troupe, Hot Peaches, from 1972 through to shows in the 1990s.{{cite news|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2015/09/forget-stonewall-pay-it-no-mind-the-life-and-times-of-marsha-p-johnson-is-available-online-for-free-213751/|title=Feature Doc 'Pay It No Mind: The Life & Times of Marsha P. Johnson' Released Online. Watch It|work=Indiewire|date=September 24, 2015|access-date=July 21, 2019|archive-date=July 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190721202807/https://www.indiewire.com/2015/09/forget-stonewall-pay-it-no-mind-the-life-and-times-of-marsha-p-johnson-is-available-online-for-free-213751/|url-status=live}} 27:15[http://www.hotpeachesnyc.com/hotpeachesnyc/Home.html NYC's Hot Peaches] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730201815/http://www.hotpeachesnyc.com/hotpeachesnyc/Home.html |date=July 30, 2017 }} website. Accessed January 23, 2016. When The Cockettes, a similar drag troupe from San Francisco, formed an East Coast troupe, The Angels of Light, Johnson was also asked to perform with them.{{cite book|last=Gamson|first=Joshua|title=The fabulous Sylvester: the legend, the music, the seventies in San Francisco|year=2005|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-8050-7250-1|url=https://archive.org/details/fabuloussylveste00gams}} Citation is for more information on the Cockettes, but does not mention Johnson. In 1973, Johnson performed the role of "The Gypsy Queen" in the Angels' production, "The Enchanted Miracle", about the Comet Kohoutek.{{cite video |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1PsvWrIQlU |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/B1PsvWrIQlU |archive-date=December 13, 2021 |url-status=live|title= Marsha P Johnson & 2015 Stonewall movie |time=51s}}{{cbignore}} – Randolfe Wicker. Published on October 5, 2015. "Rumi, one of the original Cockettes, recalls discovering Marsha P Johnson & working with her in 1973." Accessed November 15, 2017. Note: Slideshow includes Warhol polaroids. In 1974, Johnson was photographed by pop artist Andy Warhol as part of his Ladies and Gentlemen series.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/smashchurchsmash0000unse/mode/2up?q=warhol |title=Smash the Church, Smash the State!: The Early Years of Gay Liberation |date=2009 |publisher=City Lights Books |isbn=978-0-87286-497-9 |location=San Francisco, CA |pages=262}}{{Cite book |last=Flatley |first=Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J-Y8DwAAQBAJ&dq=Ladies+and+Gentlemen+1975+mazzotta&pg=PA223-IA9 |title=Like Andy Warhol |date=2017-11-24 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-50560-2 |pages=220 |language=en}} In 1990, Johnson performed with Hot Peaches in London.{{cite web |url=http://www.hotpeachesnyc.com/hotpeachesnyc/Marsha_P..html |title=Marsha P. in London '90 |website=NYC's Hot Peaches |access-date=June 9, 2018 |archive-date=August 3, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803154607/http://www.hotpeachesnyc.com/hotpeachesnyc/Marsha_P..html |url-status=live }} Johnson, who was also HIV positive,{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg_Ac0kDsPg&t=110s|title=Marsha P. Johnson's Connection to the Village AIDS Memorial|time=1:50|quote=I think you should stand as close to them as you can, and help them out as much as you can. I'm a strong believer and that's how I try and do that for everybody I know that has the virus. Including myself - I have HIV. I've had HIV for about two years.|access-date=October 15, 2021|archive-date=August 3, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803154652/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg_Ac0kDsPg&t=110s|url-status=live}} – Village AIDS Memorial. Accessed July 6, 2021. became an AIDS activist and appeared in Hot Peaches production The Heat in 1990, singing the song "Love" while wearing an ACT UP, "Silence = Death" button.{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 29:00.

While the photos of Johnson in dramatic, femme ensembles are the most well-known, there are also photos and film footage of Johnson dressed down in more daily wear of jeans and a flannel shirt and cap, or in shorts and a tank top, and no wig, such as at the Christopher Street Liberation March in 1979,{{Cite tweet|last=Fierstein|first=Harvey|author-link=Harvey Fierstein|user=HarveyFierstein|number=1429930486030348295|date=August 23, 2021|title=Here I am marching with Jon Jon and Miss Marsha one sunny Gay Day. We were young enough to believe we could change the world. And you know what? Together we did.|access-date=October 23, 2021|link=https://twitter.com/HarveyFierstein/status/1429930486030348295}} Note: photo is by Leonard Fink, from the book, Leonard Fink: Coming Out: Photographs of gay liberation and the New York waterfront. Biel/Bienne, Switzerland: Clandestin, 2014. Edited by Judith Luks and Thomas Schoenberger. {{ISBN|9783905297461}}. or singing with the New York City Gay Men's Chorus at an AIDS memorial in the 1980s, or marching in a protest in Greenwich Village in 1992.

Marsha was generally considered generous and "warmhearted" and "saintly" by those who knew her.{{cite book|last=Carter|first=David|title=Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution|publisher=St. Martin's|year=2004|isbn=0-312-20025-0|pages=66}} Robert Heide said she had a "schizophrenic personality" and would "become a very nasty, vicious man, looking for fights". A 1979 Village Voice article reported that Johnson's saintly personality was "volatile", and listed a roster of gay bars from which she had been banned.

File:Stonewall Inn, April 2019.jpg, 2016]]

Johnson had claimed to be one of the first drag queens to go to the Stonewall Inn though Johnson often contradicted herself on when she was allowed in; the Stonewall Inn was a bar only for wealthy gay men, according to lesbian feminist activist Martha Shelley, the bar was "98% male". On the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, the Stonewall riots occurred. While the first two nights of rioting were the most intense, the clashes with police would result in a series of spontaneous demonstrations and marches through the gay neighborhoods of Greenwich Village for roughly a week afterwards.{{cite book|last=Carter|first=David|title=Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution|year=2004|publisher=St. Martin's|isbn=0-312-20025-0}}

Johnson was cited along with Zazu Nova and Jackie Hormona,{{cite web | last=Carter | first=David | title=Exploding the Myths of Stonewall – Gay City News | website=Gay City News | date=June 27, 2019 | url=https://www.gaycitynews.com/exploding-the-myths-of-stonewall/ | access-date=July 1, 2020 | archive-date=January 25, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125092524/https://www.gaycitynews.com/exploding-the-myths-of-stonewall/ | url-status=live }} by a number of the Stonewall veterans interviewed by David Carter in his book, Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution, as being "three individuals known to have been in the vanguard" of the pushback against the police at the uprising. However, Johnson denied starting the uprising. In 1987 she recalled arriving at around "2:00 [that morning]", that "the riots had already started" by that time and that the Stonewall building had already been set on fire by police.{{cite web |url=http://makinggayhistory.com/podcast/episode-11-johnson-wicker/ |title=Making Gay History: Episode 11 – Johnson & Wicker |date=1987 |access-date=July 6, 2017 |archive-date=July 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707133309/https://makinggayhistory.com/podcast/episode-11-johnson-wicker/ |url-status=live }} The riots reportedly started at around 1:20 a.m. after Stormé DeLarverie fought back against a police officer who attempted to arrest her that night.

According to Carter, Robin Souza reported that fellow Stonewall veterans such as Morty Manford and Marty Robinson had witnessed Johnson throw a shot glass at a mirror in the torched bar, screaming, "I got my civil rights!" Souza told the Gay Activists Alliance shortly afterwards that it "was the shot glass that was heard around the world". Carter, however, concluded that Robinson had given several different accounts of the uprising and in none of the accounts was Johnson's name brought up, possibly in fear that if he publicly credited the uprising to Johnson, then her well-known mental state and gender nonconforming, "could have been used effectively by the movement's opponents". The alleged "shot glass" incident has also been heavily disputed. Prior to Carter's book, it was claimed Johnson had "thrown a brick" at a police officer, an account that was never verified by any of the rioters that were there that night. Johnson also confirmed not being present at the Stonewall Inn when the rioting broke out, but instead had heard about it and went to get Rivera, who was at a park uptown sleeping on a bench, to inform her about it.{{cite web|url=http://www.back2stonewall.com/2018/10/the-stonewall-riots.html|title=Gay History Month- June 28,1969: The REAL History of the Stonewall Riots|date=October 23, 2018|website=Back2Stonewall|access-date=March 30, 2019|archive-date=March 30, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330122534/http://www.back2stonewall.com/2018/10/the-stonewall-riots.html|url-status=live}} However, many have corroborated that on the second night, Johnson climbed up a lamppost and dropped a heavy bag onto a police car, shattering the windshield.

File:Marsha_P._Johnson,_Joseph_Ratanski_and_Sylvia_Rivera_in_the_1973_NYC_Gay_Pride_Parade_by_Gary_LeGault.jpg

On the first anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, on June 28, 1970, Johnson marched in the first Gay Pride rally, then called the Christopher Street Liberation Day. Johnson joined the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) in September 1970 and was active in the GLF Drag Queen Caucus.{{cite web |url= https://ebisupublications.com/lies-myths-and-stonewall/ |title=Lies, Myths and Stonewall |work=Ebisu Publications |author=Martha Shelley |date=July 21, 2019 |accessdate=February 7, 2025}}Shepard, Benjamin Heim and Ronald Hayduk (2002) From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization. Verso. pp.156-160 {{ISBN|978-1859-8435-67}} One of her most notable direct actions occurred in the same month she joined the GLF, joining a sit-in protest at Weinstein Hall at New York University alongside fellow GLF members after administrators canceled a dance when they found out that it was sponsored by gay organizations.{{cite web|url=http://www.workers.org/2006/us/lavender-red-73/|title=Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries|website=www.workers.org|first=Leslie|last=Feinberg|date=September 24, 2006|access-date=July 13, 2017|archive-date=June 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609215825/https://www.workers.org/2006/us/lavender-red-73/|url-status=live}}

Shortly after, Johnson and Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (initially titled Street Transvestites Actual Revolutionaries, or STAR). The two of them became a visible presence at gay liberation marches and other radical political actions.{{sfn|Kasino|2012}} In 1973, Johnson and Rivera were banned from participating in the gay pride parade by the gay and lesbian committee who were administering the event, stating they "weren't gonna allow drag queens" at their marches claiming they were "giving them a bad name".{{sfn|Kasino|2012}} Their response was to march defiantly ahead of the parade.Wicker, Randolfe (2014), [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SDEcv6QtCI "Marsha P Johnson Carols for Ma & Pa Xmas Presents"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211201307/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SDEcv6QtCI |date=December 11, 2019 }}, YouTube.{{sfn|Kasino|2012}} During a gay rights rally at New York City Hall in the early '70s, photographed by Diana Davies, a reporter asked Johnson why the group was demonstrating, Johnson shouted into the microphone, "Darling, I want my gay rights now!"{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 17:20{{cite web |url= https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-57a1-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 |title= Gay rights activists Sylvia Ray Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Barbara Deming, and Kady Vandeurs at City Hall rally for gay rights |last= Davies |first= Diana |date= April 1973 |website= Digital Collections |publisher= The New York Public Library |access-date= June 9, 2018 |quote= Demonstration at City Hall, New York City, in support of gay rights bill "Intro 475," April 1973 |archive-date= June 12, 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180612135804/https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-57a1-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 |url-status= live }}

During another incident around this time, Johnson was confronted by police officers for hustling in New York. When the officers attempted to perform an arrest, Johnson hit them with a handbag which contained two bricks. When asked by the judge for an explanation for hustling, Johnson claimed to be trying to secure enough money for a tombstone for her husband. During a time when same-sex marriage was illegal in the United States, the judge asked what "happened to this alleged husband", Johnson responded, "Pig shot him".{{cite video |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3VfKzfHUME |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/p3VfKzfHUME |archive-date=December 13, 2021 |url-status=live|title=MARSHA P JOHNSON 'PIGS KILLED MY HUSBAND' |access-date=July 13, 2017}}{{cbignore}} Initially sentenced to ninety days in prison for the assault, Johnson's lawyer eventually convinced the judge that Bellevue Hospital would be more suitable.

In November 1970, Johnson and Rivera established Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR House), an organization and shelter for homeless gay and trans youth,{{Cite web|title=Site of the STAR House (1970)|url=https://theclio.com/entry/121132|access-date=October 19, 2021|website=Clio|language=en|archive-date=October 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018200422/https://www.theclio.com/entry/121132|url-status=live}} and paid the rent for it with money they made themselves as sex workers."Rapping With a Street Transvestite Revolutionary" in Out of the closets : voices of gay liberation. Douglas, c1972. While the House was not focused on performance, Johnson was a "drag mother" of STAR House, in the longstanding tradition of "Houses" as chosen family in the Black and Latino LGBT community. Johnson worked to provide food, clothing, emotional support and a sense of family for the young drag queens, trans women, gender nonconformists and other gay street kids living on the Christopher Street docks or in Johnson's house on the Lower East Side.[http://zagria.blogspot.com/2009/05/marsha-p-johnson-1944-1992-activist.html "Marsha P. Johnson (1944–1992) Activist, Drag Mother."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208202817/http://zagria.blogspot.com/2009/05/marsha-p-johnson-1944-1992-activist.html |date=December 8, 2015 }} A Gender Variance Who's Who. May 2, 2009. Under Creative Commons License: Attribution{{Cite web|title=Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries found STAR House {{!}} Global Network of Sex Work Projects|url=https://www.nswp.org/timeline/street-transvestite-action-revolutionaries-found-star-house|access-date=October 19, 2021|website=www.nswp.org|archive-date=August 3, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803154610/https://www.nswp.org/timeline/street-transvestite-action-revolutionaries-found-star-house|url-status=live}} While the original location of STAR House was evicted in 1971 and the building was destroyed, though it was claimed that the household existed in different configurations and at different locations over the years, Johnson herself said after the 1971 eviction, the group dispersed and broke completely apart either due to drug overdoses or members leaving, including Rivera, who moved back up north to Tarrytown following the infamous 1973 gay liberation march.

By the time Johnson settled at NYC in 1963, she lived on the streets and engaged in survival sex.{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 17:34. Johnson recalled getting confronted by her customers who would think she was a woman until Johnson removed her clothing, in which by then they would threaten to beat up or shoot Johnson despite Johnson assuring them she wasn't a woman at all.{{cite web |url= https://www.villagevoice.com/stonewall-1979-the-drag-of-politics/ |title=Stonewall 1979: The Drag of Politics |work=Village Voice |author=Steve Watson |date=June 15, 1979 |accessdate=February 27, 2025}} In connection with sex work, she claimed to have been arrested over 100 times, and was also shot once, in the late 1970s.{{sfn|Chan|2018}} Johnson spoke of first having a mental breakdown in 1970; by 1979, Johnson claimed she had had about eight of them.{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 20:12. According to Bob Kohler, Johnson would walk naked up Christopher Street and be taken away for two or three months to be treated with chlorpromazine, an antipsychotic medication. Upon returning, the medication would wear off over the course of one month and Johnson would then return to normal.{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 19:42.

Between 1980 and Johnson's death in 1992, she lived with a friend, Randy Wicker, who had invited Johnson to stay the night one time when it was "very cold out—about 10 degrees [Fahrenheit]" ({{convert|10|F|C|disp=out}}), and Johnson had just never left.{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 9:40. When Wicker's lover, David, became terminally ill with AIDS, Johnson became his caregiver. After visiting David and other friends with the virus in the hospital during the AIDS pandemic, Johnson, who was diagnosed with AIDS around 1990, became committed to sitting with the sick and dying, as well as doing street activism with AIDS activist groups including ACT UP.

In David France's documentary, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, Johnson is seen participating in a 1980s memorial service and action for those who had died of AIDS, along with members of the Gay Men's Health Crisis.{{cite AV media|url=https://www.netflix.com/title/80189623|title=The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson|time=50:45|access-date=October 15, 2021|archive-date=October 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211015195030/https://www.netflix.com/title/80189623|url-status=live}} Johnson is seen in a red, sleeveless t-shirt, in profile, holding a bouquet of flowers. Accessed October 15, 2021. In 1992, New York became gripped by a gay bashing epidemic with 1,300 reports, 18% of which was allegedly perpetrated by police.{{cite AV media|url=https://www.netflix.com/title/80189623|title=The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson|time=53:49|access-date=October 15, 2021|archive-date=October 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211015195030/https://www.netflix.com/title/80189623|url-status=live}} Accessed October 15, 2021. Marches were organized in response, and Johnson was one of the activists who marched in the streets, demanding justice.{{cite AV media|url=https://www.netflix.com/title/80189623|title=The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson|time=54:28|access-date=October 15, 2021|archive-date=October 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211015195030/https://www.netflix.com/title/80189623|url-status=live}} Johnson is in plaid shirt and red cap, waving at camera. Accessed October 15, 2021. Only weeks later, Johnson would also be found dead, having sustained a severe head injury.

File:Christopher Park entrance.jpg in 2013, now part of the Stonewall National Monument, stands across the street from the Stonewall Inn. George Segal's Gay Liberation statues now stand where Johnson and the other street queens and homeless gay youth spent time in decades past.]]

In 1992, George Segal's sculpture, Gay Liberation was moved to Christopher Park as part of the new Gay Liberation Monument. Johnson commented, "How many people have died for these two little statues to be put in the park to recognize gay people? How many years does it take for people to see that we're all brothers and sisters and human beings in the human race? I mean how many years does it take for people to see that we're all in this rat race together."{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 41:06

Johnson remained devoutly religious in later life, often lighting candles and praying at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Hoboken,{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg_Ac0kDsPg|title=Marsha P. Johnson's Connection to the Village AIDS Memorial|time=3:38|access-date=July 7, 2021|archive-date=July 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709194611/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg_Ac0kDsPg|url-status=live}} – Village AIDS Memorial. Accessed July 6, 2021. which was renamed Our Lady of Grace in 2008.{{Cite web |title=Church of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph - Historical Timeline |url=https://www.olghoboken.com/index.php/our-parish/historical-timeline |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=www.olghoboken.com}} In 1992, Johnson said: "I practice the Catholic religion because the Catholic religion is part of the Santería of the saints, which says that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ."{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg_Ac0kDsPg|title=Marsha P. Johnson's Connection to the Village AIDS Memorial|time=4:12|access-date=July 7, 2021|archive-date=July 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709194611/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg_Ac0kDsPg|url-status=live}} – Village AIDS Memorial. Accessed July 6, 2021. Note: It is hard to make out the word here. Some have heard this as "Sangria", which does not translate to anything having to do with the saints, while "Santería" does. The closed captioning, which is generally not very good, in this case does say "Santería". Johnson would also make offerings to the saints and spirits in a more personal manner, keeping a private altar at home when possible.{{sfn|Chan|2018}}{{cite web|last=Watson|first=Steve|date=June 15, 1979|title=Stonewall 1979: The Drag of Politics|url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2019/06/04/stonewall-1979-the-drag-of-politics/|access-date=June 23, 2019|work=The Village Voice|archive-date=June 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627163102/https://www.villagevoice.com/2019/06/04/stonewall-1979-the-drag-of-politics/|url-status=live}} As friend James Gallagher related in the documentary Pay it No Mind,{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 1:21 "Marsha would always say she went to the Greek Church, she went to the Catholic Church, she went to the Baptist Church, she went to the Jewish Temple - she said she was covering all angles."{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg_Ac0kDsPg|title=Marsha P. Johnson's Connection to the Village AIDS Memorial|time=4:23|access-date=July 7, 2021|archive-date=July 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709194611/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg_Ac0kDsPg|url-status=live}} – Village AIDS Memorial. Accessed July 6, 2021. In the summer of 1991, Johnson participated in the interfaith AIDS memorial service at the Church of Saint Veronica in Greenwich Village.{{Cite web|title=Marsha P. Johnson – The Village AIDS Memorial|url=https://www.villageaidsmemorial.org/the-history/the-marsha-connection/|access-date=July 6, 2021|language=en-US|archive-date=July 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709184908/https://www.villageaidsmemorial.org/the-history/the-marsha-connection/|url-status=live}} When asked about religion in the last interview, Johnson said, "I use Jesus Christ the most in my prayers, most of the time." A neighbor also said Johnson would pray, prostrate on the floor in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary, in the church across from Wicker's apartment (where Johnson lived in later years). Johnson's friend Sasha McCaffrey added, "I would find her in the strangest churches. She'd be wearing velvet and throwing glitter."{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 41:36

Johnson expressed a relationship with the Divine that was direct and personal, saying in her last interview (June 1992), about leaving home in 1963, "I got the Lord on my side, and I took him to my heart with me and I came to the city, for better or worse. And he said, 'You know, you might wind up with nothing.' 'Cause you know, me and Jesus is always talking. And I said, Honey, I don't care if I never have nothing ever till the day I die. All I want is my freedom."{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 48:00 "I believe [Jesus is] the only man I can truly trust. He's like the spirit that follows me around, you know, and helps me out in my hour of need."

In Pay it No Mind, friends Bob Kohler and Agosto Machado talk about Johnson's relationship with Neptune. Kohler tells a story of sunbathing at the Christopher Street piers when Johnson, naked, began grabbing at Kohler's shirt, shouting, "My father needs those clothes!"{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 18:30 Johnson succeeded in pulling Kohler's shirt off and throwing it into the Hudson River. "These were sacrifices to her father, and to Neptune, who got all mixed up together," explains Kohler. Machado continues, "She was making offerings of flowers and change to King Neptune as an appeasement to help her friends who are on the other side."{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 19:27.

Near the time of Johnson's death in 1992, Wicker said Johnson was increasingly sick and in a fragile state. However, none of Johnson's friends or relatives believed Johnson was suicidal.{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 51:20.

Shortly after the 1992 gay pride parade, Johnson's body was discovered floating in the Hudson River.{{sfn|Chan|2018}} Police initially ruled the death a suicide,{{cite book|author=Feinberg, Leslie|date=1996|title=Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman|location=Boston|publisher=Beacon Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/transgenderwarri00fein/page/131 131]|isbn=0-8070-7941-3|url=https://archive.org/details/transgenderwarri00fein/page/131}} but Johnson's friends and other members of the local community insisted she was not suicidal and noted that the back of her head had a massive wound.Wicker, Randolfe (1992) {{cite video |title="Bennie Toney 1992" }} Accessed July 26, 2015.Wicker, Randolfe (1992) {{cite video |title="Marsha P Johnson – People's Memorial"}} Accessed July 26, 2015.

Johnson's death occurred during a time when anti-gay violence was at a peak in New York City, including bias crime by police. Johnson was one of the activists who had been drawing attention to the issue, participating in marches and other activism to demand justice for victims, and an inquiry into how to stop the violence. She had been speaking out against the "dirty cops" and elements of organized crime that many believed responsible for some of these assaults and murders, and had even voiced the concern that some of what Wicker was stirring up, and pulling Johnson into, "could get you murdered."{{cite AV media|url=https://www.netflix.com/title/80189623|title=The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson|time=56:15|access-date=October 15, 2021|archive-date=October 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211015195030/https://www.netflix.com/title/80189623|url-status=live}} This added to the suspicions of foul play and possible murder.

Johnson's body was cremated and, following a funeral at a local church and a march down Seventh Avenue, friends released her ashes over the Hudson River, off the Christopher Street piers. Police allowed Seventh Avenue to be closed while Johnson's ashes were carried to the river. After the funeral, a series of demonstrations and marches to the police precinct took place, to demand justice for Johnson.{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 52:07.

According to Rivera, Kohler believed Johnson committed suicide due to an ever-increasing fragile state, which Rivera herself disputed, claiming she and Johnson had "made a pact" to "cross the 'River Jordan' together".{{cite video|url=https://vimeo.com/35975275|title=Randy Wicker Interviews Sylvia Rivera On The Pier|date=September 21, 1995|access-date=July 15, 2017|archive-date=May 14, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170514003449/https://vimeo.com/35975275|url-status=live}} Those who were close to Johnson considered the death suspicious; many claimed that while Johnson did struggle mentally, this did not manifest itself as suicidal ideation.{{Cite web|date=March 30, 2019|title=The Death of Marsha P. Johnson and the Quest for Closure|url=https://www.insideedition.com/death-marsha-p-johnson-and-quest-closure-51708|access-date=December 14, 2019|website=Inside Edition|language=en-US|archive-date=December 14, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214110513/https://www.insideedition.com/death-marsha-p-johnson-and-quest-closure-51708|url-status=live}} Wicker later said that Johnson may have hallucinated and walked into the river, or may have jumped into the river to escape harassers, but stated that Johnson was never suicidal.

Several people came forward to say they had seen Johnson harassed by a group of "thugs" who had also robbed people. According to Wicker, a witness saw a neighborhood resident fighting with Johnson on July 4. During the fight he called Johnson a homophobic slur, and later bragged to someone at a bar that he had killed a drag queen named Marsha. The witness said that when he tried to tell police what he had seen, his story was ignored. Other locals stated later that law enforcement was not interested in investigating Johnson's death, stating that the case was about a "gay black man" and wanting little to do with it at the time.{{harvnb|Kasino|2012}}: event occurs at 51:50.

In December 2002, a police investigation resulted in reclassification of Johnson's cause of death from "suicide" to "undetermined". Former New York politician Thomas Duane fought to reopen the case because, "Usually when there is a death by suicide the person usually leaves a note. She didn't leave a note."{{Cite web|url=https://www.insideedition.com/death-marsha-p-johnson-and-quest-closure-51708|title=The Death of Marsha P. Johnson and the Quest for Closure|date=March 30, 2019|website=Inside Edition|language=en-US|access-date=December 14, 2019|archive-date=December 14, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214110513/https://www.insideedition.com/death-marsha-p-johnson-and-quest-closure-51708|url-status=live}} In November 2012, activist Mariah Lopez succeeded in getting the police to reopen the case as a possible homicide.{{cite web|title = DA reopens unsolved 1992 case involving the 'saint of gay life'|url = http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/da-reopens-unsolved-1992-case-involving-saint-gay-life-article-1.1221742|work = New York Daily News|access-date = June 15, 2015|date = December 16, 2012|last = Jacobs|first = Shayna|archive-date = July 1, 2019|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190701064615/http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/da-reopens-unsolved-1992-case-involving-saint-gay-life-article-1.1221742|url-status = live}}

In 2016, Victoria Cruz of the Anti-Violence Project also tried to get Johnson's case reopened and succeeded in gaining access to previously unreleased documents and witness statements. She sought out new interviews with witnesses, friends, other activists and police who had worked the case or had been on the force at the time of Johnson's death.{{cite magazine|last1=Desta|first1=Yohana|title=Meet the Transgender Activist Fighting to Keep Marsha P. Johnson's Legacy Alive|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/10/the-death-and-life-of-marsha-p-johnson-victoria-cruz|access-date=October 4, 2017|magazine=Vanity Fair|date=October 3, 2017|archive-date=October 3, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003122225/https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/10/the-death-and-life-of-marsha-p-johnson-victoria-cruz|url-status=live}} Some of her work to find justice for Johnson was filmed by David France for the 2017 documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson.{{cite news|last=Kohn|first=Eric|date=April 24, 2017|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2017/04/the-death-and-life-of-marsha-p-johnson-review-tribeca-2017-1201808593/|title='The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson' Review: A Stonewall Hero Is Mourned In Fascinating Detective Story — Tribeca 2017 Review|work=IndieWire|accessdate=May 6, 2022|archive-date=May 6, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220506024403/https://www.indiewire.com/2017/04/the-death-and-life-of-marsha-p-johnson-review-tribeca-2017-1201808593/|url-status=live}}

File:Graffiti Astoria.jpg, Queens, New York]]

File:Plaza de la Diversidad de la Ciudad de Murcia - Placa 6 - Marsha P. Johnson (cropped).jpg

• The 2012 documentary Pay It No Mind – The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson heavily features segments from a 1992 interview with Johnson, which was filmed shortly before Johnson's death. Many friends of Johnson's from Greenwich Village are interviewed for the documentary.{{sfn|Kasino|2012}}
• Johnson appears as a character in two fictional film dramas that are based on real events, including Stonewall (2015), played by Otoja Abit,[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcPaeYN8GwY Stonewall Clip "Marsha P. Johnson"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308223640/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcPaeYN8GwY |date=March 8, 2021 }}, In Theaters September 25, 2015, RoadsideFlix, YouTube. Accessed September 10, 2015. and Happy Birthday, Marsha! (2016), played by Mya Taylor. Both movies are creative interpretations, inspired by the Stonewall uprising.
• The 2017 documentary, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, follows trans woman Victoria Cruz of the Anti-Violence Project as she investigates Johnson's death. Like Pay It No Mind, it relies on archival footage and interviews.
• New York City artist Anohni produced multiple tributes to Johnson, including baroque pop band Anohni and the Johnsons (named in Johnson's honor), and the 1995 play The Ascension of Marsha P. Johnson.[http://www.blacklips.org/blackclips/hist.html Blacklips Performance Cult Chronology of Plays] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118190506/http://www.blacklips.org/blackclips/hist.html |date=November 18, 2018 }}. Accessed January 23, 2016. Their 2023 album My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross depicts Johnson on the album's artwork.{{Cite web |last=Kornhaber |first=Spencer |date=2023-07-05 |title=Anohni's Message: To Save the World, We'll Have to Forgive Ourselves |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2023/07/anohni-my-back-was-a-bridge-for-you-to-cross-interview/674619/ |access-date=2023-07-07 |website=The Atlantic |language=en |archive-date=July 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705205217/https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2023/07/anohni-my-back-was-a-bridge-for-you-to-cross-interview/674619/ |url-status=live }}
• American drag queen and TV personality RuPaul has called Johnson an inspiration, describing Johnson as "the true Drag Mother". During an episode of his show RuPaul's Drag Race in 2012, RuPaul told her contestants that Johnson "paved the way for all of [them]".{{cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/15/lgbt-history-month-icon-marsha-p-johnson_n_1955668.html |title=LGBT History Month Icon Of The Day: Marsha P. Johnson |author=Tungol, JR |work=Huffington Post |date=October 15, 2012 |access-date=July 9, 2017 |archive-date=February 16, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216194030/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/15/lgbt-history-month-icon-marsha-p-johnson_n_1955668.html |url-status=live }}
• In 2018 the New York Times published a belated obituary for Johnson.{{cite news |author=Sewell Chan |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked-marsha-p-johnson.html |title=Marsha P. Johnson, a Transgender Pioneer and Activist – The New York Times |date=March 8, 2018 |access-date=March 9, 2018 |newspaper=The New York Times |archive-date=June 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628191524/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked-marsha-p-johnson.html |url-status=live }}
• A large, painted mural depicting Johnson and Sylvia Rivera went on display in Dallas, Texas, in 2019 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. The painting of the "two pioneers of the gay rights movement" in front of a transgender flag claims to be the world's largest mural honoring the trans community.{{cite web |first=Vic |last=Parsons |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/12/12/marsha-p-johnson-sylvia-rivera-largest-trans-vandalised-moustaches-stonewall/amp/ |title=Mural of Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera vandalised with moustaches |publisher=Pinknews.co.uk |date=December 12, 2019 |access-date=December 29, 2019 |archive-date=December 13, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213164456/https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/12/12/marsha-p-johnson-sylvia-rivera-largest-trans-vandalised-moustaches-stonewall/amp/ |url-status=live }}
• On May 30, 2019, it was announced that Johnson and Sylvia Rivera would be honored with monuments at Greenwich Village, near the site of the Stonewall club.{{cite news |url=https://www.out.com/news/2019/5/30/marsha-p-johnson-and-sylvia-rivera-monuments-are-coming-nyc |title=Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera Monuments Are Coming to NYC |work=Out |first=Mikelle |last=Street |date=May 30, 2019 |access-date=May 30, 2019 |archive-date=May 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190530193111/https://www.out.com/news/2019/5/30/marsha-p-johnson-and-sylvia-rivera-monuments-are-coming-nyc |url-status=live }} Construction is rumored to be completed by 2021.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/arts/transgender-monument-stonewall.html|title=Two Transgender Activists Are Getting a Monument in New York|last=Jacobs|first=Julia|date=May 29, 2019|work=The New York Times|access-date=December 14, 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=June 30, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200630223916/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/arts/transgender-monument-stonewall.html|url-status=live}} These monuments of Johnson and Rivera will be the world's first to honor transgender activists.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theroot.com/new-york-city-to-honor-revolutionary-trans-activist-mar-1835120270|title=New York City to Honor Revolutionary Trans Activist Marsha P. Johnson With Monument|website=The Root|first=Anne|last=Branigin|date=May 30, 2019|language=en-us|access-date=December 14, 2019|archive-date=August 3, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803154609/https://www.theroot.com/new-york-city-to-honor-revolutionary-trans-activist-mar-1835120270|url-status=live}} A Love Letter to Marsha by Jesse Pallotta was completed in 2021.
• On May 31, 2019, queer street artists Homo Riot and Suriani created a mural, as part of the WorldPride Mural Project and Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019, and dedicated to Queer Liberation, featuring multiple images of Johnson. The mural, located at 2nd Avenue and Houston Street in New York City, was curated by photographer and filmmaker Daniel "Dusty" Albanese.{{cite news |url=https://www.brooklynstreetart.com/2019/06/06/homo-riot-suriani-the-dusty-rebel-pay-it-no-mind/ |title=Homo Riot, Suriani, The Dusty Rebel "Pay It No Mind" |work=Brooklyn Street Art |date=June 6, 2019 |access-date=June 6, 2019 |archive-date=August 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808033910/https://www.brooklynstreetart.com/2019/06/06/homo-riot-suriani-the-dusty-rebel-pay-it-no-mind/ |url-status=live }}
• In June 2019, Johnson was one of the inaugural fifty American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City's Stonewall Inn.{{Cite web|url=https://www.metro.us/news/local-news/new-york/stonewall-inn-lgbtq-wall-honor|title=National LGBTQ Wall of Honor unveiled at Stonewall Inn|last=Glasses-Baker|first=Becca|date=June 27, 2019|website=www.metro.us|access-date=June 28, 2019|archive-date=June 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190628133313/https://www.metro.us/news/local-news/new-york/stonewall-inn-lgbtq-wall-honor|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://sdgln.com/news/2019/06/19/national-lgbtq-wall-honor-be-unveiled-historic-stonewall-inn|title=National LGBTQ Wall of Honor to be unveiled at historic Stonewall Inn|first=Timothy |last=Rawles|date=June 19, 2019|website=San Diego Gay and Lesbian News|language=en|access-date=June 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621091646/https://sdgln.com/news/2019/06/19/national-lgbtq-wall-honor-be-unveiled-historic-stonewall-inn|archive-date=June 21, 2019}} The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history,{{Cite web|last=Laird|first=Cynthia|url=https://www.ebar.com/news/news//272833|title=Groups seek names for Stonewall 50 honor wall|website=The Bay Area Reporter / B.A.R. Inc.|language=en|access-date=May 24, 2019|archive-date=May 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190524021601/https://www.ebar.com/news/news//272833|url-status=live}} and the wall's unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.{{Cite web|last=Sachet|first=Donna|url=http://sfbaytimes.com/stonewall-50/|title=Stonewall 50|date=April 3, 2019|website=San Francisco Bay Times|access-date=May 25, 2019|archive-date=May 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525134357/http://sfbaytimes.com/stonewall-50/|url-status=live}}
• On June 30, 2020, Google celebrated Marsha P. Johnson with a Google Doodle.{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/doodles/celebrating-marsha-p-johnson|title=Celebrating Marsha P. Johnson|website=Google|date=June 30, 2020|access-date=June 30, 2020|archive-date=June 30, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200630071000/http://www.google.com/doodles/celebrating-marsha-p-johnson|url-status=live}}
• In August 2020 the Union County, New Jersey Office of LGBTQ Affairs announced Johnson's hometown, Elizabeth, New Jersey, would erect a monument to Johnson near City Hall.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nj.com/union/2020/08/marsha-p-johnson-late-lgbtq-activist-to-get-monument-in-nj-hometown.html|title=Marsha P. Johnson, late LGBTQ activist, to get monument in N.J. hometown|first=Rebecca|last=Panico|date=August 27, 2020|website=NJ.com|access-date=August 28, 2020|archive-date=August 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200829015426/https://www.nj.com/union/2020/08/marsha-p-johnson-late-lgbtq-activist-to-get-monument-in-nj-hometown.html|url-status=live}} A petition to remove the Christopher Columbus monument in the Italian neighborhood of the city and replace it with a statue of Johnson received over 75,000 signatures and spurred the county to choose another site.{{Cite web|title=Over 75,000 sign petition to have Marsha P. Johnson statue replace Columbus monument|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/over-75-000-sign-petition-have-marsha-p-johnson-statue-n1232583|access-date=April 22, 2021|website=NBC News|date=July 2020 |language=en|archive-date=April 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422161227/https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/over-75-000-sign-petition-have-marsha-p-johnson-statue-n1232583|url-status=live}} The mural of Johnson in Elizabeth was vandalized during Pride Month in June 2021.{{Cite web|title=Mural honoring prominent New Jersey transgender rights activist vandalized in Elizabeth|url=https://newjersey.news12.com/mural-honoring-prominent-new-jersey-transgender-rights-activist-vandalized-in-elizabeth|date=June 8, 2021|access-date=June 10, 2021|author=News 12 Staff|website=News12 New Jersey|language=en|archive-date=August 3, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803154610/https://newjersey.news12.com/mural-honoring-prominent-new-jersey-transgender-rights-activist-vandalized-in-elizabeth|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|title=Mural of Marsha P. Johnson in NJ Vandalized During Pride|url=https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/mural-of-marsha-p-johnson-in-nj-vandalized-during-pride/3097289/|date=June 9, 2021|access-date=June 10, 2021|website=NBC 4 New York|language=en|archive-date=June 10, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610023644/https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/mural-of-marsha-p-johnson-in-nj-vandalized-during-pride/3097289/|url-status=live}} Community organizers vowed to fund restoration of the mural to honor Pride Month and Johnson's legacy.{{Cite web |title=Campaign underway to restore vandalized mural of transgender pioneer Marsha P. Johnson |url=https://abc7ny.com/mural-vandalism-pride-lgbtq/10767615/ |date=June 10, 2021 |access-date=June 10, 2021 |first=Michelle |last=Charlesworth |website=WABC NBC New York |language=en |archive-date=June 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609223822/https://abc7ny.com/mural-vandalism-pride-lgbtq/10767615/ |url-status=live }}
• On August 24, 2020, the 75th anniversary of Johnson's birth, the Marsha P. Johnson State Park was renamed in Johnson's honor, becoming the first New York state park named after an openly gay person.{{Cite web|date=August 26, 2020|title=New York governor dedicates state park in memory of LGBTQ activist Marsha P. Johnson|url=https://www.metroweekly.com/2020/08/new-york-governor-dedicates-state-park-in-memory-of-lgbtq-activist-marsha-p-johnson/|access-date=August 26, 2020|website=Metro Weekly|last=Riley|first=John|language=en-US|archive-date=August 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200828004232/https://www.metroweekly.com/2020/08/new-york-governor-dedicates-state-park-in-memory-of-lgbtq-activist-marsha-p-johnson/|url-status=live}}{{cite web | title=Brooklyn's East River State Park renamed in honor of late LGBTQ activist and trans icon Marsha P. Johnson | website=The Architect's Newspaper | date=August 25, 2020 | last=Hickman | first=Matt | url=https://www.archpaper.com/2020/08/brooklyn-east-river-state-park-renamed-in-honor-of-marsha-p-johnson/ | access-date=August 26, 2020 | archive-date=March 13, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210313170213/https://www.archpaper.com/2020/08/brooklyn-east-river-state-park-renamed-in-honor-of-marsha-p-johnson/ | url-status=live }} Two years later, governor Kathy Hochul announced that a new gate to the park would be constructed in Johnson's honor.{{Cite web|url=https://www.brooklynpaper.com/marsha-p-johnson-park-new-gateway-reno/|title=Marsha P. Johnson Park to get new 'ornamental gateway' to cap off renovations, honor park's namesake|first=Kirstyn|last=Brendlen|date=August 25, 2022|access-date=2022-08-29|website=Brooklyn Paper}}{{cite web | last=Ginsburg | first=Aaron | title=Brooklyn's Marsha P. Johnson Park to get new 'ornamental' entrance | website=6sqft | date=2022-08-25 | url=https://www.6sqft.com/brooklyns-marsha-p-johnson-park-to-get-new-ornamental-entrance/ | access-date=2022-08-29}}

{{Portal|LGBTQ}}

• Lee Brewster – founder of the Queens Liberation Front
• LGBT culture in New York City
• List of LGBT people from New York City
• NYC Pride March
• Stormé DeLarverie – biracial butch lesbian whose resistance of arrest incited the Stonewall uprising
• Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt – fellow Stonewall veteran, artist, and Union County native
• Paris Is Burning – 1990 film about black drag culture in New York City in the 1980s
• List of unsolved deaths
• Transgender culture of New York City

{{Clear}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_D4XdvkOQpYC |title=Stonewall: the riots that sparked the gay revolution |last=Carter |first=David |date=May 25, 2010 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=9780312671938 |location=New York, New York |oclc=659681252 |pages=}}
• {{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked-marsha-p-johnson.html |title=Marsha P. Johnson: A transgender pioneer and activist who was a fixture of Greenwich Village street life. |last=Chan |first=Sewell |date=March 8, 2018 |website=The New York Times }}
• {{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjN9W2KstqE |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/rjN9W2KstqE |archive-date=December 13, 2021 |url-status=live|title=Pay It No Mind – The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson |date=2012 |last=Kasino |first=Michael |type=Documentary film }}{{cbignore}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{IMDb name}}
• [https://www.flickr.com/photos/randywicker/sets/72157625873936233/ Marsha P. Johnson photographs] by roommate and archivist Randy Wicker
• {{YouTube|9Kmv0twbaGM|"Marsha P Johnson – People's Memorial"}} - conversations with friends of Johnson at the memorial where Johnson's body was found
• [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/diana-davies-photographs?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=marsha+johnson Photographs of Marsha P. Johnson by Diana Davies] at the New York Public Library Digital Collections (note: the photo of the much younger person, sitting on the table wearing a headscarf, has been mislabeled; it is actually GLF and Youth Group member, Zazu Nova, also a Stonewall veteran)

{{VH1 Trailblazer Honors}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Marsha P.}}

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