[I would like to acknowledge that my voice is that of a white, cisgender female and, as such, my perspective is limited on the topics discussed in this column.]
“When I think of Marsha P. Johnson, I think of someone who gay kids today know nothing about, which is a shame really, because she is one of the reasons they are sitting in all their liberated glory,” says member of Hot Peaches, Michael Lynch, in the documentary ‘Pay It No Mind’. The documentary pays tribute to Marsha P. Johnson, one of the strongest women to have walked the planet. Flower crowns, wigs, and a fierce moral compass, she literally paved the way for queer youngsters to be freely and proudly out. Strutting down the streets of New York City’s Greenwich Village while passionately supporting gay students and campaigning against exorbitant AIDS drug prices, Marsha was an unmissable figure. The iconic artist Andy Warhol even used her in a series of works that set out to depict the essence of drag; the woman was a queen in every sense of the word. The enormity of the impact of Marsha’s legacy is one of the reasons that earlier this year, Roland Emmerich’s Stonewall received fervent backlash. Marsha played an important role that night, a role that was shamefully overlooked in the film. Instead, attention was focused on a white, cisgender gay man who the director said was “an easy-in” for straight viewers. The Stonewall riots were not intended to make easy viewing for the heterosexual majority—they were intended to bring justice to a group that had been repressed, abused, and discriminated against for centuries. Marsha did not intend to make life easier for straight people. She intended to make life easier for queer people, and queer people of colour particularly needed her. Indeed, queer people of colour still need the Marshas of the world to raise their voices—the battle is far from won.