New York City To Honor Transgender Activists With New Monument

The city of New York announced Thursday that it will erect a monument near Stonewall Inn to honor transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the news.

“When trans young people trying to find their place in the world come to the Village, they'll look up at a monument of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera,” de Blasio said in a tweet. “They'll see themselves, and their own potential to make history.”

The new monument, expected to be completed by 2021, will be placed in the Ruth Wittenberg Triangle in the heart of Greenwich Village.

Johnson and Rivera were at the Stonewall Inn during the riots that many historians credit for sparking the modern gay rights movement. Historian David Carter, author of the book “Stonewall,” has credited Johnson with throwing “the shot glass heard around the world.” Johnson is often described as “the Rosa Parks of the LGBT movement.”

Johnson and Rivera co-founded the world's first organization devoted to transgender rights, Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR).

Johnson is the subject of director David France's documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, which is available on Netflix.

“Almost single-handedly, Marsha P. Johnson and her best friend, Sylvia Rivera, touched off a revolution in the way we talk about gender today,” France said in a statement announcing the movie. “Their names should be household words.”