Today in Labor History December 24, 1920: Stormé DeLarverie was born in New Orleans. Stormé, a biracial lesbian, is sometimes known as "the Rosa Parks of the gay community." Many have credited her resistance to being arrested as sparking the Stonewall Riots. And she was quite open about having punched a cop in the face during that arrest. But she also said she wasn't "the Stonewall Lesbian" who started the fighting, adding "I know who that was, but I'm not telling."
Stormé worked as an MC, singer, bouncer, bodyguard, and as an armed street patrol, which earned her the moniker, "guardian of lesbians in the Village." Stormé was androgynous and could pass for male or female. Even when wearing typically feminine attire to avoid being arrested for violating cross-dressing laws, she was still mistaken as a drag queen and arrested at least twice. As a child, she was regularly beaten up by both black and white kids “For being a negro with a white face." From 1955 to 1969, she toured the Black theater circuit as the MC and only drag king of the Jewel Box Revue, North America's first racially integrated drag revue.
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