Ariana’s Reviews > Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson > Status Update

“The mainstreaming and assimilation of gay life into dominant culture felt both near and impossibly far; both a dream encompassing safety and freedom-and a nightmare in which only the right kind of queers could be assimilated, leaving those of us who were sick, or gender nonconforming, or poor, or non-white, out in the cold.

“It is a gift to see the world through Marsha's eyes. In order to change the harshest conditions-to survive in a world not designed for your survival; to believe in your dignity amid constant disempowerment, violence, and loss—you have to be able to see beyond what is right in front of you. Instead, you need to see into what is possible: what might have been, what could be, what will be.”

“Morty may have censored
his own recorded accounts," Carter wrote, "fearing that to publicly credit a severely mentally ill transvestite prostitute with starting the Stonewall Riots and thus indirectly the gay liberation movement could have been used effectively by the movements opponents."

To this day we do this. Why do we try to build our narrative for our oppressors?

“…and party and get high and think about walking down the street someday and not worrying about getting busted by the police. That was a dream we all had, sitting in those hotel rooms or in the queens' tanks of the jails. So, honey, when it came [to] that night, I was ready to tip a few cars for a dream. It was that year—1969—when I finally went out in the street in drag full-time.

“Times Square was the place where trans people came to survive and thrive together--and it became a place for collective dreaming. This was where Marsha first felt she could live as her fullest self, and where she was able to meet Sylvia and other trans women who became foundational for the trans community she had scarcely been able to imagine as a child in New Jersey.”

“Whatever activity the girl was actually doing was entirely irrelevant; cops were legally allowed to assume that the mere presence of a trans woman in a particular neighborhood meant she was intending to sell sex.”

“Bebe Scarpi, a trans activist and friend of Sylvia and Mar-sha, explained that in Times Square you were arrested for “walking while trans": the criminalization of simply being, which New York only repealed in 2020. Up until 2020, the NYPD was given incredibly wide latitude to arrest any trans woman for "loitering," which simply means standing or walking in a public place.”

“Marsha didn't wait for the world to tell her she could be free; she told the world she already was free, and that they'd better catch up.”

“I wrote Marsha because she deserves a joyful, inspiring, and accessible biography that honors the fullness of her life.”

“She used her artwork as care work, and she sought to be as close to her community as possible in a moment when government neglect was escalating the epidemic.”