marsha p johnson wasn’t a transwoman, he was a gender non conforming gay man/drag queen, he even said (shortly before his death no less) ‘i am a man’ like you don’t have to strip gay men (especially dead ones, which is incredibly insensitive) of their identities to make a point :/

tiredorcbutch:

pure:

Miss thing I know the tumblr feminists you hang around with get hyped up on kilos of sherm and bathsalts before they type into this putrid site and whatnot but I am not the one. Marsha was a pre-op transsexual and she wanted to transition, but due to poverty, the criminalization of prostitution, her deteriorating mental health, antiblackness, homophobia, and transmisogyny, she could not. Trans identity politics did not exist in the united states when she was alive as they exist today (because things evolve) and she described her transition in ways that would be considered controversial on tumblr dot com but they ought to be acknowledged. Interesting enough, tumblr feminists like your ilk and some trans activists here both have that refusal to acknowledge complex history in common. You people always want to deny parts of her existence to fit your compartmentalized narratives. Trust me you’re not much better or different than your imagined enemies so jot that down.

Moving on, Marsha was a transsexual woman and she described her biological sex as being male (a trans person describing themselves in this way wasn’t considered as much of a controversial act back then as it is now). She called herself a woman and a man (referring to how she described her sex or lack of access to HORMONES AND SURGERY), and it is clear that her existence was one rife with transmisogynoir and hostility due to her engagement in prostitution so she could have money to support herself and to fund her transition, which, sadly, didn’t happen because of, in part, the very same sentiments expressed in this dumb ass message u sent me girl. She experienced violence in the same patterns as any other transsexual woman in prostitution. Read Viviane Namaste to learn more about how transsexual women specifically are most at risk for violence that results in death when they engage in prostitution.

From Rapping with a Street Transvestite Revolutionary, an interview originally done by Bob Kohler on August 20, 1990, reprinted in Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation. Can be read in full here for free.

Kohler: When you hustle on 42nd Street, do they know you’re a transvestite, or
do they think you’re a woman? Or does it depend? 

Marsha: Some of them do and some of them don’t, because I tell them. I
say, “It’s just like a grocery store; you either shop or you don’t shop.” Lots
of times they tell me, “You’re not a woman!” I say, “I don’t know what I
am if I’m not a woman.” They say, “Well, you’re not a woman.” They say
“Let me see your cunt.” I say, “Honey, let me tell you something.” I say
“You can either take it or leave it,” because, see, when I go out to hustle I
don’t particularly care whether I get a date or not. If they take me, they
got to take me as I want ‘em to take me. And if they want to go up my
dress, I just charge them a little extra, and the price just goes up and up
and up and up. And I always get all of my money in advance, that’s what
a smart transvestite does. I don’t ever let them tell me, “I’ll pay you after
the job is done.” I say I want it in advance. Because no woman gets paid
after their job is done. If you’re smart, you get the money first.

Kohler: What about the term “drag queen?” People in STAR prefer to use the
term “transvestite.” Can you explain the difference? 

Marsha: A drag queen is one that usually goes to a ball, and that’s the
only time she gets dressed up. Transvestites live in drag. A transsexual
spends most of her life in drag. I never come out of drag to go anywhere.
Everywhere I go I get all dressed up. A transvestite is still like a boy, very
manly looking, a feminine boy. You wear drag here and there. When
you’re a transsexual, you have hormone treatments and you’re on your
way to a sex change, and you never come out of female clothes.

Kohler: You’d be considered a pre-operative transsexual then? You don’t know
when you’d be able to go through the sex change? 

Marsha: Oh, most likely this year. I’m planning to go to Sweden. I’m
working very hard to go. 

Kohler: It’s cheaper there than it is at Johns Hopkins? 

Marsha: It’s $300 for a change, but you’ve got to stay there a year.

She wanted to transition. She planned to transition. She was a pre-op transsexual woman and a drag performer. Tryda disrespect a dead black woman in my inbox again girl and I implore you not to come for me if you glean all of your politics off your dashboard and sleazy wordpress blogs.

And that bullshit gets spread by the same people who did everything they could to usher trans leaders towards the grave. Killing them wasn’t enough for people like that, they want to rob us of the legacy they left too.