"I'm not mising a minute of this. It's the revolution!"

-Sylvia Rivero

Sylvia Rivero was a Hispanic trans woman who, like Marsha P. Johnson, was absolutely pivotal to the Stonewall Riots and, by extension, the greater gay liberation movement. However, Rivero's story is, in many ways, a tragic one. She was raised by her grandparents, who severely mistreated her and beat her when she wore dresses. She ran away from home at the age of 11, and was found by Marsha P. Johnson, who was eighteen at the time. Johnson took her under her wing, and was the mother figure Rivero never had. They went to many gay bars and clubs, including the Stonewall Inn.

Flashforward to 1969--the Stonewall Riots. Rivero was, like Johnson, right at the center of the Riots. One of the most famous Stonewall quotes was Rivero's: "I'm not missing a minute of this. It's the revolution!" But the tragic irony of this quote is that, soon after the Stonewall Riots, Rivero and Johnson--along with other trans activists--were pretty much shunned from the movement. They created a subset of the larger queer right organization (the Gay Liberation Front) called the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), which provided food and housing to homeless trans youth. But soon after that, they were basically eschewed from the queer rights movement, which at the time was trying to spread the message that "gay people are just like everyone else," and tried to keep the existence of trans people--who were very clearly not "like everyone else"--shushed away. Eventually, Rivero just quite activism because her voice was not being heard. 

In 2001, was able to get back into activism. But the tragedy of it all is that, after finally finding her place again, she died of cancer just one year later.

Though Sylvia Rivero's work has been intentionally covered up, her legacy is constantly felt by every single LGBTQ+ person alive today.