Stormė DeLarverie: “Gay Superhero”
Colfax & Williams
Created By: Sophia
Sponsored By: The Squire
Ever since Stonewall became an important part of LGBTQ history, there has been a persistent and difficult to answer question - who threw the first punch? Some reports indicated that it was a woman who landed a blow on a police officer, thus setting off the riots. Some researchers took it further and said that it was a well-known singer and bouncer named Stormė DeLarverie.
No one has been able to say one way or another if DeLarverie touched off the riots. DeLarverie recalled that she had hit a police officer the night of the fateful police raid. Even if she was not the first to come to blows that night, DeLarverie remains an influential and memorable member of the LGBTQ community.
DeLarverie was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of an African American mother and a white father. She was often harassed for being mixed-race and “different”, even before she realized that she was attracted to women at the age of eighteen. As a teenager, she joined the Ringling Brothers Circus and rode jumping horses.
DeLarverie also worked as singer. She first dressed in traditional women’s clothing, but later began wearing suits and presenting as a man while on stage. This drag act proved to be especially popular when she performed with the Jewel Box Revue during the 1950s and 1960s. All of the other Revue members were men who dressed as women. DeLarverie also served as the group’s M.C.
Eventually, DeLarverie worked as a bodyguard for various groups and establishments throughout New York City. “She literally walked the streets of downtown Manhattan like a gay superhero,” said Lisa Cannistraci, one of DeLarverie’s legal guardians . DeLarverie fought “ugly”, her word for bias and discrimination and fiercely protected her “baby girls”, or fellow lesbians. She became a beloved figure in New York’s LGBTQ community. DeLarverie passed away in 2014, at the age of 93.