Those cops got the surprise of their lives - those queens were not going to take it any longer. I walked into it.
― Stormé DeLarverie on her role in the Stonewall riots.
Stormé DeLarverie (possibly born December 24, 1929 - May 24, 2014) was an American lesbian entertainer whose scuffle with police is believed to be the inciting incident of the Stonewall riots, a series of spontaneous demonstrations that shaped the gay rights movement of the twentieth century. DeLarverie was also a stage performer and drag king as well as an advocate for battered women. She has been compared to Rosa Parks for her role in Stonewall.
DeLarvarie, a mixed-race woman whose mother was African-American, was formerly a show jumper with the Ringling Brothers Circus until she was injured after falling off a horse. She first realised that she was a lesbian (a woman attracted to other women) around the age of eighteen.
From 1955 to 1969 DeLarvarie performed with the Jewel Box Revue as a drag king and baritone singer. During shows audience members would try to guess who the "one girl" was, among the revue performers, and at the end Stormé would reveal herself as a woman. Her performances were highly influential as they were unique and are now known to have been unprecedented at the time. They are also thought to have influenced current gender nonconforming fashion up to the present day.
On June 28, 1969, DeLarvarie was arrested in a police raid on a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn by the Public Morals Squad (although the bar was Mafia-owned, the raid was ordered just to arrest gay people). As a large crowd of mostly gay people gathered outside, DeLarverie was led outside in handcuffs and bleeding from the head, having been beaten by officers after complaining her handcuffs were too tight. She broke free from the officers and fought back for about ten minutes, before turning to the crowd and asking "Why don't you guys do something?". After DeLarvarie was then thrown into the police van, the crowd became violent and charged the officers. This was the beginning of the Stonewall Riots, a two-day series of demonstrations and scuffles with police that forever changed the fight for LGBT rights in the United States. The movement now became more forceful and aggressive, with gay rights organizations becoming openly pro-gay rather than using obscure messaging, and inspired solidarity among pro-LGBT groups across the country. The first Gay Pride Parade took place to remember it.
DeLarvarie's role in the events at Stonewall was not known to the public until she gave an interview in 2008, with the "Stonewall Lesbian" becoming a symbol of resistance in the gay community. Tragically, DeLarvarie's partner Diana died in the 1970s; friends suggested that she never got over this death. In the 1980s and 1990s she worked as a bouncer for several lesbian bars in New York City. She was also responsible for organising and performing at benefit concerts for battered women and was a regular at gay pride parades. DeLarvarie served as a volunteer street patrol worker for decades.
In June 2019, DeLarvarie was one of the inaugural fifty American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City's Stonewall Inn (where the initial police raid took place).
DeLarvarie suffered from serious dementia late in her life, living in a nursing home from 2010 to 2014. She died in her sleep on May 24, 2014, in Brooklyn.