RIP.....STORME DE LARVERIE

NEW YORK — Storme DeLarverie, a lesbian activist who took part in the New York Stonewall riots in 1969 that si widely credited as the start of the gay rights movement in the United States, has died. She was 93. 

DeLarverie died Saturday at a Brooklyn nursing home, said Lisa Cannistraci, a longtime friend and one of her legal guardians. 

Born in New Orleans in 1920 to a black mother and a white father, DeLarverie “was born into adversity and lived in adversity her whole life,” Cannistraci said. 

In the 1950s, she was part of a traveling drag show called the Jewel Box Revue, where she performed as a male impersonator. In the 1969 riots, she was among those who fought against a police raid at a Greenwich Village bar called the Stonewall. 



Join us this Thursday 5/29 at The Greenwich Village Funeral Home at 199 Bleecker Street from 7-9pm to honor Storme: A Celebration of Life!!! Champagne reception & light fare afterwards from 9- Midnight at Henrietta Hudson.



Poem For Stormé I write this because Martin had his mountaintop And Rosa’s feet were tired and she had had enough. I write this because freedom isn’t only fought for overseas in camouflage gear and combat boots– Sometimes war paint is made by Maybelline and sometimes the king is a woman and gender is nothing but a constructed illusion and there’s more to her than meets the eye; and silky voiced singers wear suits and defy convention even when convention is law. I write this because if I don’t invisibility will be the only way for us to be seen, ’cause sometimes boys dress like girls and girls dress like boys and genders are fluid and cuffs are no longer the only bracelets we are allowed to wear. I write this because in 1969 @ 57 Christopher Street someone had the courage to say “enough is enough”. I write this because blank pages fill history books where stories of bayou country warriors should be. Instead we are taught that we never existed and that gay rights are but a passing trend and that Rosie & Ellen are groundbreakers, when seeds of revolution had already been planted in the West Village decades ago. See, “it ain’t easy being green” is more than just an expression, it’s a call to action, where the only response is resistance, where sometimes you have to fight back and say: ‘enough is enough.” ‘Cause Rosa had her bus and Martin had his mountaintop, and Storme has her Stonewall. They say sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me– except when followed by a club or a fist and Storme had the courage to fight back and say “not tonight.” I write this because when folk strut around in feathers and rainbow gear on hot Sundays in June it’s important to remember that it wasn’t always like this and that “The Lady of the Jewel Box Revue is one of the people we need to thank. I write this because there is a lady who “dressed like a man” who carries two sides of a coin in her wallet refusing to choose either one. I write this because it’s easy to forget when ignorance is our teacher and portraits are never painted– See I write this if for nothing else but to say: THANK YOU

written by Karen Jaime