Sylvia Riveras powerful speech against the exclusion of transgender people at the Gay Pride Rally NYC, 1973.
Transcript:
Y'all better quiet down! I’ve been trying to get up here all day for your gay brothers and your gay sisters in jail that write me every motherfucking week and ask for your help! And you all don’t do a goddamn thing for them! And they write STAR, not the woman’s group! They do not write women, they do not write men, they write to STAR! Because we’re trying to do something for them! But you all tell me to go and hide my tail between my legs! I will not put up with this shit! I have been beaten, I have had my nose broken, I have been thrown in jail, I have lost my job, I have lost my apartment for gay liberation, and you all treat me this way?! What the fuck’s wrong with you all?! Think about that! I believe in the gay power, I believe in us getting our rights, or else I would not be out there fighting for our rights, that’s all I wanted to say to you people. Come and see people at STAR House on Twelfth Street, the people that are trying to do something for all of us, and not men and women that belong to our white middle class club! And that’s what you all belong to! Revolution now! Gay power! Know the gay power!
I think it’s so important to hear her voice. Like literally, if you can, listen to her voice. Listen to her accent. Listen to that rasp that tells you how long she’s been shouting and how long she’s been crying. Listen to the Distortion from that microphone, listen to the sound from the crowd. Listen to how desperately she needs these people who left their homes and came out in the streets and risked their lives for Community she loves and tries to help, how much she needs him to listen to her for two God damn minutes. Realize this is her speaking to you literally half a century ago. It’s been 50 fucking years and some of y'all still aren’t listening.