Editor’s Note: This article contains reference to homophobia, transphobia, violence and suicide.

On a humid summer night in 1969, the air in New York City’s Greenwich Village crackled with tension. Hundreds of people gathered outside the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar often known as a sanctuary for queer people in lower Manhattan. In the midst of another police raid on the bar, an outrage was sparked, and thus was born the Gay Liberation Front, a group pioneered by a Black transgender woman — Marsha P. Johnson.

The streets that night were filled with defiance, with hundreds of patrons dismayed by the obvious prejudice at play.

A founding member of the Gay Liberation Front, Johnson was present on the night of the Stonewall Riots. The self-proclaimed drag queen made many unforgettable contributions to the queer community, not least of which began with her presence at the Stonewall Inn and founding of the Gay Liberation Front.

Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1945, Johnson grew up as a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She moved to New York at 17 years old with nothing but $15 and a bag of clothes to her name.

During her first few years in New York, Johnson waited tables until, eventually, she began spending time with street hustlers. Sex work was prominent during this time and, much like today, was also very risky. Johnson was involved in many dangerous encounters and was once even shot.

Eventually, Johnson began working as a drag queen, often participating in grassroots political shows that distinguished themselves from what is called “high drag.”

After the Stonewall Riots, Johnson became a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front and worked alongside many others to fight for an end to the prejudiced discrimination against queer people in New York.

As an extension of her work with the Gay Liberation Front, Johnson founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries alongside Sylvia Rivera.

A year after Stonewall, Johnson marched in the first ever gay pride rally, which was then called Christopher Street Liberation Day.

One of Johnson’s most notable direct actions was a sit-in she staged in Weinstein Hall at New York University. This sit-in was in response to the cancellation of a dance after administration at the university learned that the event was sponsored by gay organizations.

In 1970, Johnson and her colleague Sylvia Rivera founded the STAR House, a homeless shelter for gay and transgender youth. They both paid the rent for this house using the money they made from sex work. Johnson was considered the “drag mother” of this house, and she worked to ensure that the children staying there had food, shelter and emotional support.

Johnson also worked with the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power and advocated for the sick and dying to be treated with respect. As a woman who was HIV-positive, the cause hit close to home for Johnson.

After a pride parade in 1992, Johnson’s body was found floating in the Hudson River, in what the police deemed a suicide.

Johnson’s death occurred during a time in New York City where violence perpetrated against queer people was common, and this led many to believe that she was murdered, contrary to what the police called it at that time.

Johnson made an indelible mark on the gay rights movement in the United States, one that paved the way for many queer activists to follow, even after her untimely death.

When asked by a reporter in the early 1970s why she was participating in a demonstration with a group of activists, she replied, “Darling, I want my gay rights now!“

Johnson dedicated her life to changing the stigma surrounding queerness, and we see her motive in action every day as we work toward a better tomorrow.

Even in death, Marsha left hope in the hearts of many that their situations would take a turn for the better, and inspired them to continue to advocate for themselves in a world that seemed to turn their backs to them.