Sylvia Rivera was a civil rights activist, a transvestite and sex worker.

Known as the New York Drag queen of color, Silvia was fierce and tireless in her advocacy, in defense of those who  were marginalized and excluded as the “gay rights” movement mainstreamed in the United States in the early 1970’s.

In a well-known speech on Christopher Street Day in 1973, Sylvia, shouted through a crowd of LGBT community members: 

“You all tell me, go and hide my tail between my legs.
I will no longer 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!” 

In 1969, at age 17, Silvia took part in the iconic Stonewall Riots by allegedly throwing the second Molotov cocktail to protest the police raid of the gay bar in Manhattan. She continued to be a central figure in the uprisings that followed, organizing rallies and fighting back police brutality.

In 1970, Sylvia worked together with Marsha P. Johnson to establish Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), a political collective and organisation that would set up projects of mutual support for trans people living on the streets, those struggling with drug addiction and in prisons and in particular for trans people of color and those living in poverty. 

Defiant of labels, Silvia lived life in a way that challenged people in the gay liberation movement to think differently. She said: 

“I left home at age 10 in 1961. I hustled on 42nd Street. The early 60s was not a good time for drag queens, effeminate boys or boys that wore makeup like we did. Back then we were beat up by the police, by everybody. I didn't really come out as a drag queen until the late 60s. when drag queens were arrested, what degradation there was. I remember the first time I got arrested, I wasn't even in full drag. I was walking down the street and the cops just snatched me. People now want to call me a lesbian because I'm with Julia, and I say, "No. I'm just me. I'm not a lesbian." I'm tired of being labeled. I don't even like the label transgender. I'm tired of living with labels. I just want to be who I am. I am Sylvia Rivera. 

Through her activism and courage, Sylvia offered a mirror that reflected all that was wrong within society, but also the possibility of transformation. Sylvia was born in 1951 and passed away in 2002. 

Cynthia Cockburn fue una socióloga feminista, escritora, académica, fotógrafa y activista por la paz.

Estudió los aspectos relacionados con el género en la violencia y el conflicto e hizo importantes contribuciones al movimiento por la paz gracias a sus investigaciones sobre masculinidad y violencia, así como gracias a su activismo local e internacional.

Cynthia aportó un análisis feminista potente sobre la militarización y la guerra, y fue una de las académicas cuyos escritos y estudios demostraron claramente cómo la violencia de género desempeñaba un papel clave en la perpetuación de la guerra. Al trabajar en estrecha colaboración con activistas por la paz en distintos países en conflicto, sus conclusiones abarcaron diversos contextos, entre ellos: Irlanda del Norte, Bosnia y Herzegovina, Israel/Palestina, Corea del Sur, Japón, España y el Reino Unido. También logró incluir en sus investigaciones y escritos académicos una interpretación sobre cómo la violencia se experimenta como un continuo de tiempo y escala y cómo se percibe de forma muy diferente cuando se analiza desde la perspectiva de género.

En sus propias palabras: "El género nos ayuda a ver la continuidad, la conexión entre los casos de violencia".

Cynthia conectó su trabajo de investigación con el activismo que sostuvo a nivel local e internacional con los movimientos por la desmilitarización, el desarme y la paz. Ayudó a iniciar el campamento de paz de las mujeres de Greenham Common, que defendía el desarme nuclear universal en Gran Bretaña, y formó parte también de la creación del capítulo londinense de Women in Black [Mujeres de Negro]. A lo largo de las décadas, Cynthia organizó y participó en vigilias semanales locales y en el coro político Raised Voices [Elevar las Voces], para el que, además de cantar, escribió varias letras de canciones que forman parte de su repertorio.

Su activismo la llevó a apoyar también el trabajo de la Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom [Liga Internacional de Mujeres por la Paz y la Libertad] (WILPF, por su siglas en inglés), el European Forum of Socialist Feminists [Foro Europeo de Feministas Socialistas] y Women Against Fundamentalism [Mujeres contra el Fundamentalismo].

"Cynthia arrojó claridad feminista, tejió comunidades feministas, cantó canciones de paz, escuchó, escuchó, escuchó, observó los pájaros - y detuvo el tráfico. Siempre estaré agradecida y en deuda con ella, la otra 'Cynthia'" - Cynthia Enloe.

Cynthia nació en julio de 1934 y falleció en septiembre de 2019, a la edad de 85 años.

Hevrin Khalaf était une grande dirigeante politique kurde de Syrie dans la région autonome du Rojava, où les femmes kurdes risquent leur vie pour résister aux offensives turques et pour bâtir un système féministe.

Elle a travaillé en tant que secrétaire-générale du Parti du Futur de la Syrie, un groupe qui souhaitait construire des ponts, réconcilier les différents groupes ethniques et mettre sur pied une « Syrie démocratique, pluraliste et décentralisée ».

Véritable symbole de cet effort de réconciliation, elle a également oeuvré à la promotion de l’égalité entre les femmes et les hommes et fut représentante auprès des journalistes en visite, des humanitaires et des diplomates.

Hevrin a de plus été diplômée en tant qu’ingénieure civile, à la ville de Derik, ainsi que l’une des fondatrices de la Fondation pour la Science et la Libre pensée en 2012.

Elle a été torturée et assassinée le 12 octobre 2019 par la milice Ahrar al-Sharqiya, soutenue par la Turquie, lors d’une opération militaire contre les Forces démocratiques syriennes dans le Rojava.

 « L’assassinat de Khalaf est un tournant majeur dans l’histoire moderne de la Syrie, celui-ci ayant une fois de plus confirmé la validité du vieux proverbe kurde qui dit : « Il n’y a de véritable ami·e que la montagne ». Je serai toujours ami avec Khalaf et sa vision d’un monde meilleur. » – Ahed Al Hendi

Laurie Carlos was an actor, director, dancer, playwright, and poet in the United States. An extraordinary artist and visionary with powerful ways of bringing the art out in others. 

“Laurie walked in the room (any room/every room) with swirling clairvoyance, artistic genius, embodied rigor, fierce realness—and a determination to be free...and to free others. A Magic Maker. A Seer. A Shape Shifter. Laurie told me once that she went inside people’s bodies to find what they needed.” - Sharon Bridgforth 

She combined performance styles such as rhythmic gestures and text. Laurie mentored new actors, performers, writers and helped amplify their work through Naked Stages, a fellowship for emerging artists. She was an artistic fellow at Penumbra Theater and supported with identifying scripts to produce, with a goal of “bringing more feminine voices into the theater”. Laurie was also a member of Urban Bush Women, a renowned contemporary dance company telling stories of women of the African diaspora.

In 1976, as Lady in Blue, she made her Broadway debut in Ntozake Shange’s original and award-winning production of the poetic drama For colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. Laurie’s own works include White Chocolate, The Cooking Show, and Organdy Falsetto. 

“I tell the stories in the movement—the inside dances that occur spontaneously, as in life—the music and the text. If I write a line, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a line that is spoken; it can be a line that’s moved. A line from which music is created. The gesture becomes the sentence. So much of who we are as women, as people, has to do with how we gesture to one another all the time, and particularly through emotional moments. Gesture becomes a sentence or a state of fact. If I put on a script ‘four gestures,’ that doesn’t mean I’m not saying anything; that means I have opened it up for something to be said physically.” Laurie Carlos

Laurie was born and grew up in New York City, worked and lived in Twin Cities. She passed away on 29 December 2016, at the age of 67, after a battle with colon cancer.

Tributes:  

“I believe that that was exactly Laurie’s intention. To save us. From mediocrity. From ego. From laziness. From half-realized art making. From being paralyzed by fear.
Laurie wanted to help us Shine fully.
In our artistry.
In our Lives.” - Sharon Bridgforth for Pillsbury House Theatre

“There’s no one that knew Laurie that wouldn’t call her a singular individual. She was her own person. She was her own person, her own artist; she put the world as she knew it on stage with real style and understanding, and she lived her art.” - Lou Bellamy, Founder of Penumbra Theater Company, for Star Tribune 

Read a full Tribute by Sharon Bridgforth