Sylvia Rivera, born on July 2 in 1951, was a Latina American queer rights activist, member of the Gay Liberation Front, and community worker from the state of New York.

Rivera, who identified as a “half-sister”, participated in demonstrations with the Gay Liberation Front. With her close friend Marsha P. Johnson, Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a socialist group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens, gay youth, and trans women.

At different times in her life, Rivera battled substance abuse and lived on the streets, largely in the gay homeless community at the Christopher Street docks. Her experiences made her more focused on advocacy for those who, in her view, mainstream society and the assimilationist factions of the LGBT community were leaving behind.

Rivera died during the dawn hours of February 19th, 2002, at St. Vincent’s Hospital, of complications from liver cancer. Activist Riki Wilchins said this of her: “In many ways, Sylvia was the Rosa Parks of the modern transgender movement, a term that was not even coined until two decades after Stonewall”.

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  • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
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    121 year ago

    Sometimes I’m like maybe i should get a another phd in like condensed matter physics or electrical engineering. Them im like nah i should instead get a second math phd, make the abstract nonsense in this one even more abstract and nonsensical

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
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      41 year ago

      I would definitely get several PHDs if the damn loans weren’t garaunteed by the US government here. I can’t even defraud lenders by getting an expensive education then changing my name! bear-despair

      • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
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        21 year ago

        With costs of living going up idk how viable surviving on a stipend is anymore, but I didn’t take on any additional debt during a phd. Actually helped pay off my undergrad debt in a way! (I tried saving as much as a I could and my undergrad debt’s interest was frozen during)