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Artist
Luis Carle, born 1962
Sitter
Sylvia Rivera, 2 Jul 1951 - 19 Feb 2002
Christina Hayworth, 20th century
Julia Murray, 20th century
Date
2000
Type
Photograph
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 43.6 × 29.1 cm (17 3/16 × 11 7/16")
Sheet: 51.3 × 36.8 cm (20 3/16 × 14 1/2")
Topic
Costume\Dress Accessory\Eyeglasses
Sign
Exterior\Park
Sylvia Rivera: Female
Sylvia Rivera: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist\Civil rights activist\LGBT rights activist
Sylvia Rivera: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist\Civil rights activist\LGBT rights activist\Transgender rights activist
Christina Hayworth: Female
Christina Hayworth: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Colonel
Christina Hayworth: Journalism and Media\Journalist
Christina Hayworth: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist\Civil rights activist\LGBT rights activist\Transgender rights activist
Julia Murray: Female
Portrait
Place
United States\New York\Kings\New York
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquisition made possible through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center
A forerunner in the fight against gender identity discrimination, Sylvia Rivera worked the dicey Times Square district as a trans woman sex worker after she was cast out by family as a teenager. She was there in 1969 at the turning point of the modern LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) struggle for equal rights, when patrons of the Stonewall Inn violently rebuffed a police raid. Politicized by this experience, Rivera campaigned with the Gay Activist Alliance (GAA) in urging the city to enact a nondiscrimination ordinance. However, facing racism and discrimination as a Latina transgender by the mainly white male GAA leadership, she began to work with homeless teenagers, co-founding the militant group and shelter STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries). In the 1990s Rivera was embraced as one of the fundamental figures of the LGBT movement. This portrait shows her flanked by her partner Julia Murray (right) and activist Christina Hayworth at the Saturday Rally before New York’s Gay Pride Parade in 2000.
