The Stonewall Reader by Foreword to 'The Stonewall Reader'

Author:Foreword to 'The Stonewall Reader' [ed. Baumann] (2019)
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2019-04-29T00:00:00+00:00

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MARCUS: What were you trying to do? What were your hopes?

RIVERA: Marsha and I fought for the liberation of our people. We did a lot back then. We did sleep in the streets. Marsha and I had a building on Second Street, which we called STAR House. When we asked the community to help us [tears coming down face] there was nobody to help us. We were nothing. We were nothing! We were taking care of kids that were younger than us. Marsha and I were young and we were taking care of them. And GAA had teachers and lawyers and all we asked was to help us teach our own so we could all become a little bit better. There was nobody there to help us. They left us hanging. There was only one person that that came and help us. Bob Kohler was there. He helped paint. He helped us put wires together. We didn’t know what the fuck we were doing. We took a slum building. We tried. We really did. We tried. Marsha and I and a few of the other older drag queens. We kept it going for about a year or two. We went out and made that money off the streets to keep these kids off the streets. We already went through it. We wanted to protect them. To show them that there was a better life. You can’t throw people out on the street.

MARCUS: Who were these young kids? Where did they come from?

RIVERA: From everywhere. We had kids from Boston, California, everywhere.

MARCUS: Where were their families?

RIVERA: I guess at home. They were good kids. I’ve seen a couple of them after the movement. The ones that I’ve seen they’ve done very well. It makes you feel good, it does.

MARCUS: Things didn’t turn out as you had hoped.

RIVERA: Well, you figure it’s always going to happen. Every time I see the commercial for Covenant House, I say, “I would love to have had that.” I would love to have seen a STAR House. These kids already knew. You always get that feeling. You’re different. We just didn’t have the money. The community was not going to help us.

MARCUS: Were they embarrassed by you?

RIVERA: The community is always embarrassed by the drag queens.

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