24 Sylvia Rivera Transcript Eric: I’m Eric Marcus from Making Gay History. Over the course of two decades beginning in 1988 I conducted a hundred interviews with trailblazers from the LGBTQ civil rights move- ment. Now, with the Give Voice to History Project, I’m bringing some of those trailblazers into your classrooms to help tell the story of this part of the American Civil Rights Movement. Meet Sylvia Rivera. Trans icon, LGBTQ civil rights activist, and self- described troublemaker. When I met Sylvia, she was living in a rundown apartment in North Tarrytown, New York, about 30 miles north of Man- hattan. Sylvia was dressed in a black halter top, hot pink Spandex pants, and beige knee-high boots with chunky heels. I was wearing an orange down parka and green corduroys and I looked like I’d stepped off the “F” train from Queens, which is where I’m from. Sylvia was striking: high cheekbones, wide-spaced eyes, bright red lipstick. With a gap-toothed smile she wel- comed me into her steamy kitchen. While she stirred a pot of chili on the stove, she began reminiscing about joining the movement in the late 1960s. Sylvia: I guess my revolutionary blood was going back then. Before the Stonewall I was involved in the black liberation movement, the peace move- ment. Because I had to. I had so much anger. About the world, the way it was. The way they were treating people. When the Stonewall happened, I said, here, I’m out there being a revolutionist for everybody else. I said now it’s time to do my thing for my own people. Eric: Do you think all this was in part because people were so angry for so long? Sylvia: People were very angry for so long. I mean, how long can you live in the closet? Eric: So what happened after that night then? Did you start going to meetings of some kind? Sylvia: I did join the movement. I joined GAA [Gay Activists Alliance]. And that first year that we were petitioning for gay rights... Eric: So it was 1970. Sylvia: It was 1970. I got arrested for petitioning for gay rights, the city Gay Rights Bill, on 42nd Street. The cops came up to me and said,“You can’t do this.” I’m like,“What do you mean? My Constitution says that I can do any- thing that I want.”“No, no, no, you can’t do this. Either you leave or we’re going to arrest you.” I said,“Fine, arrest me.” They very nicely picked me up and threw me in a police car and took me to jail. I went in front of the judge. He’s like,“Number one, I’m letting him go.” He says,“But you don’t realize what you just did.” Eric: To the policeman. Sylvia: Uh-huh.“You don’t realize what you just did.” He says,“The whole country is going up in an uproar and you are messing with people…” Eric: Who are circulating petitions. Sylvia: Right. And I’m like,“Ah, okay.” They let me out. They let me go home. Eric: Were you part of…? There was a protest at NYU [New York University]. There was a dance. 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80