NEW YORK — Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, two LGBT rights activists who took part in the 1969 Stonewall rebellion and founded an organization that helped homeless gay youths, will be honoured with a public monument in New York City, officials announced Thursday. The yet-to-be-commissioned monument is part of an initiative to increase the diversity of the statues and monuments in public places around New York City. Johnson died in 1992 at age 46 and Rivera in 2002 at age 50. Advocates for the rights of transgender people consider Rivera and Johnson to be pioneers of the movement. Johnson and Rivera joined up to found the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, a group that advocated for homeless gay young people, in 1970.

Source: National Post May 30, 2019 01:37 UTC