New York City are set to honour two of the biggest names connected with the US Pride movement and the infamous Stonewall riots with new monuments.
Transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera will be two of the first trans women to be honoured with permanent monuments anywhere in the world.
The monuments will be part of an installation near the Stonewall Inn at the Ruth Wittenberg Triangle, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the watershed moment for queer liberation.
Currently the Triangle hosts four statues of two men and two women, and has been criticised for depicting only those who are white and cisgender.
New York first lady Chirlane McCray says it is important that these new tributes have a “name and a face.”
“The LGBTQ+ movement was portrayed very much as a white, gay male movement,” said McCray
“This monument counters that trend of whitewashing the history.”
A 2015 film directed by Roland Emmerich depicting the 1969 riots was slammed for its exclusion of transgender people and people of colour, who were at the forefront of the events five decades ago.
The USA are celebrating Pride Month throughout June across the country.
OIP Staff
