There’s a petition to give Marsha P Johnson her own national holiday
The UntoldPride Marsha P. Johnson mural in New York City. (lgbt_history/ Instagram)
A group of activists in the US have launched a petition calling on the Senate to make Marsha P Johnson’s birthday a national holiday.
Johnson was a tireless activist and participated in the 1969 Stonewall riots against police. She fought throughout her life for trans rights and for the rights of people of colour within the LGBT+ movement.
She tragically died in 1992. Her body was pulled from the Hudson River and her death was initially ruled to be by suicide, but authorities later claimed it was a “drowning from undetermined causes”.
A national holiday would ‘truly honour the legacy’ of Marsha P Johnson.
Now, the GHOST Project – who fight for awareness and support for transgender people – are calling on the US Senate to make her birthday, August 24, a national holiday.
On their Change.org petition, the group write that a national holiday on Johnon’s birthday would “truly honour her legacy”.
Making her birthday a day that we reflect on our history, community and shared values would truly honour her legacy.
“Marsha ‘Pay It No Mind’ Johnson is one of the great heroes of LGBTQ history, and making her birthday a day that we reflect on our history, community and shared values would truly honour her legacy,” the group wrote.
‘She always had a smile for everyone.’
“Andy Warhol immortalized her. RuPaul called her ‘the true Drag Mother who paved the way for all of us’. New Yorkers referred to her as the Queen of Christopher Street for decades. She was one of the first Stonewall patrons to resist during the Stonewall uprisings in 1969. She always wore flowers in her hair, and she always had a smile for everyone.”
“In the spirit of Marsha’s legacy, the GHOST Project provides both support and empowerment to members of the transgender community who are struggling to overcome and survive in a world that does not celebrate us. We learned how to care for community from Marsha, who made this road we walk on every day.”
Johnson has gone down in history as one of the activists who kicked off the campaign for LGBT+ rights.
In 2017, Netflix released a documentary called The Death and Life of Marsha P Johnson.
