Remembering Marsha P Johnson on her 80th Birthday!

Feature Spotlight | Gaye Birthdays

Today, the world remembers Marsha P. Johnson –the towering Black trans activist, drag queen, sex worker, and freedom fighter –on what would have been her 80th birthday. To speak our name in this moment is the conjured of joy and fire, beauty and resistance, grief and possibility.

Johnson was more than a figure in the backdrop of queer history. She was one of its architects, a cofounder of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) alongside Sylvia Rivera, a vanguard at Stonewall, and a mother to countless queer youth who had nowhere else to go. She walked Christopher Street and thrift-store gowns like they were royal regalia, crowning herself in flowers even when the world tried to bury her. She gave what she did not have. She risked what others would not.

For me, Marsha has always been more than myth. She has been an ancestor whose whispers reach me in the moments I am most unsure of my own worth. When I first came out, I remember trembling under the weight of silence, wondering if I could survive a world that seem to prefer me hidden. Then I found her –her laugh, her defiance, her refusal to apologize for existing. She taught me that survival was holy, and that joy is a form of rebellion.

Her lessons ripple far beyond me. Without Marsha, there is no modern queer liberation movement as we know it. Before corporate floats and rainbow capitalism, there was Marsha walking into the line of fire with nothing but a brick in her uncompromising insistence that trans lives mattered. Before hashtags and photo ops, there was Marsha gathering kids on the piers, feeding them, housing them, reminding them that chosen family could be just as sacred as blood.

And yet, to honor her at 80 is also to admit the painful truth; the world she fought to build is still under siege. Trans and queer people –particularly Black trans woman –remain targets of violence, legislation, and erasure. Our communities are still criminalized, still exploited, still forced to choose between survival and dignity. In this climate both the left and the right have found ways to weaponize our existence, using our bodies as battlegrounds in a culture war.

But if Marsha were here, she would remind us –as she always did –to "pay no mind." Not as dismissal, but as gospel. She meant don't let their hatred determine the boundaries of your joy. Don't let their violence dictate the measure of your dreams. Liberation is larger than fear.

On her 80th birthday, we are invited to pick up the bricks Marshall left behind –not just a physical brick at Stonewall, but the symbolic ones she used to dismantle shame, fear, and silence. To honor her is not to canonize her into untouchable sainthood, but to continue her work –to shelter the unhoused, to defend the marginalized, to build chosen kinships, to turn mourning into movement.

80 years after her birth, Marsha P Johnson's light is not dimmed. It is refracted –and the faces of Black trans girls refusing to disappear, in queer kids dancing free on the piers, in every act of defiance that insist we will not only survive, but thrive.

Happy birthday, Marsha. Thank you for teaching us how to fight –and how to love.

5 Ways to Carry Marsha's Legacy Today

Protect Trans Lives.

Marsha center Black and Brown trans woman long before the world had language for it. Stand with today's trans organizers and fight legislation that targets our existence.

Build Chosen Family

Marsha opened her home and heart to queer youth who had nowhere else to turn. Create networks of care –share food, shelter, love, and safety –especially with those most at risk.

Resist Respectability

Marsha lived loudly, joyfully, and unapologetically. Liberation will never come from shrinking ourselves to fit their comfort. Celebrate your fire

Turn Grief Into Movement

Marsha's that was tragic, but her life reminds us that morning must lead to action. Channel your rage and heartbreak into organizing, creating, and protecting community.

Keep Joy Sacred

Flowers in her hair, laughter on her lips –Marsha show that joy itself is political. Dance, sing, love, and remember that joy is not frivolous, it is fuel for the fight.