One of the most prominent figures of the gay rights movement of 1960s and 1970s New York City, Marsha P. Johnson was an important advocate for homeless LGBTQ+ youth, those affected by HIV and AIDS, and gay and transgender rights. After fighting on the front lines of the Stonewall uprising in 1969, Marsha became an activist and co-founder (with Sylvia Rivera) of Street Transvestite Activist Revolutionaries (STAR), a place where young transpeople living on the street could feel safe.
She died in 1992 at the age of 46, under suspicious circumstances, a case that remains unsolved. In 2020, New York State named a waterfront park in Brooklyn after Marsha.