Welcome back to Sylvia’s kitchen, for the second part of a never-before-heard interview from 1989. Pull up a chair for a conversation with the Stonewall veteran and trans rights pioneer who reflects on a life of activism while she cooks a pot of chili.
Episode Notes:
For complete episode notes on Sylvia Rivera and to listen to “Part 1” of this interview, please click here.
In this episode, Sylvia mentions Bob Kohler (see photograph below), GLF, GAA, and describes a sit in at New York University’s (N.Y.U.) Weinstein Hall and being arrested for “upper-head female impersonation.” For additional information on these topics, please see the links that follow below:
• Click here for more information on the Weinstein Hall sit-in.
• Bob Kohler, a World War II veteran, was a longtime LGBTQ rights activist who witnessed the June 1969 uprising at New York City’s Stonewall Inn. In the uprising’s immediate aftermath, Bob helped co-found GLF (Gay Liberation Front), a radical gay civil rights group. You can learn more about Bob Kohler by reading his Village Voice obituary here. For more information about GLF, click here.
• According to the introduction to the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) collection at the New York Public Library, the organization “was founded in New York City in 1969 as a militant, non-violent organization dedicated exclusively to the attainment of civil and social rights for gays.” To learn more about GAA and to see what’s available in GAA’s collection, click here.
• The law that historian David Carter cites as the one used by the New York City police against people like Sylvia Rivera—who explains in this episode that she was arrested for “upper-head female impersonation”— is an “anti-mask” law that dates back to the mid-19th century. For an overview of the history of laws regarding cross-dressing, click here.
In the interview, Sylvia also mentions her friend Bebe Scarpinato who was also a member of STAR, the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.
In the conclusion to the episode, host Eric Marcus mentions HMI, originally called the Hetrick-Martin Institute for the Protection of Lesbian and Gay Youth. To learn more about HMI, visit their website and listen to our episode featuring Joyce Hunter from Making Gay History’s second season.
Sylvia Rivera’s memory lives on with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, an organization that “works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression.”
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