Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (New York, N.Y.)

Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) was a gay, gender non-conforming and transvestite street activist organization founded in 1970 by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson,[1] subculturally-famous New York City drag queens of color.[1][2] STAR was a radical political collective that also provided housing and support to homeless LGBT youth and sex workers in Lower Manhattan. Rivera and Johnson were the "mothers" of the household, and funded the organization largely through sex work. STAR is considered by many to be a groundbreaking organization in the queer liberation movement and a model for other organizations.[3] Both founders were long-term civil rights activists, and were present during the 1969 Stonewall riots and the intense period of gay organizing that began in the wake of Stonewall.[4] Together with the GLF, STAR hosted a fundraising dance on November 21, 1970, and with these funds they were able to purchase STAR House. They found a 4-bedroom apartment in a run-down building at 213 East 2nd Street, in the East Village in New York. The apartment had no electricity or heat, but they began working to repair it.[7] Rivera and Johnson used to hustle the streets in order to keep everyone fed and sheltered, and to keep "their kids" (the runaways they took in) from having to do the same.[2][8] This STAR house was only active until July 1971. In 1972 STAR stopped holding meetings, and saw a decline in demonstrations.[9][7]: 15  While STAR had no official termination date, Rivera marks the 1973 Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade as the death of STAR.