(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Stormé DeLarverie was a protector of the LGBTQ+ community [1] ['Tammy C. Barney', 'More Tammy C. Barney', 'Verite News', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width'] Date: 2024-06-28 Stormé DeLarverie in 1956. Credit: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. Today marks the 55th anniversary of a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village. The uprising that followed propelled the gay rights movement. New Orleans native Stormé DeLarverie, some say, started it all by throwing the first punch. A singer, drag performer, bouncer and LGBTQ+ activist, DeLarverie was the master of ceremonies of the Jewel Box Revue. According to the New York Public Library, she was “a self-appointed guardian of the LGBTQ+ community and an active member of the Stonewall Veterans’ Association.” Born in 1920 to a white father and a Black mother, DeLarverie did not have a birth certificate because interracial marriage was against the law, according to a Them article. “While growing up,” Elyssa Goodman writes, “she was so often bullied, attacked, and beaten by peers for being biracial — one incident left her with a leg brace, another resulted in a scar from being left hanging on a fence — that her father ultimately sent her away to private school for her own safety.” The National Park Service states that as a baritone, DeLarverie started singing in New Orleans clubs at 15 and toured Europe before moving to New York. The June 28, 1969 skirmish began after DeLarverie tried to help a young man scuffling with three officers during the Stonewall raid. “An undercover policeman, mistaking DeLarverie for a man, used a gay slur and shoved DeLarverie, who retaliated with a punch to the face,” the Legacy Project states. What some called a “riot” and DeLarverie called “rebellion” ensued, raising her status to “a gay superhero” who protected lesbians and street kids. DeLarverie, 93, died May 24, 2014 in a Brooklyn nursing home. In 2019, she was one of the 50 inaugural “pioneers, trailblazers and heroes” inducted into the Stonewall National Monument’s National LGBTQ Wall of Honor. Related Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/06/28/bitd-storme-delarverie-stonewall-inn/ Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/