Sylvia Rivera; 1994. (Photographer Harvey Wang)
Meet Sylvia Rivera.
Sylvia Rivera would always be quick to redress those who thought she threw the first Molotov cocktail at the historic Stonewall riot on June 28, 1969. “I have been given the credit for throwing the first Molotov cocktail by many historians, but I always like to correct it,” she said in 2001. “I threw the second one. I did not throw the first one!” –March 2019; Them.
Listen to Sylvia in her own voice as shared via Making Gay History the LGBTQ Oral Histories archive. Since 2016, Making Gay History has been bringing the largely hidden history of the LGBTQ civil rights movement to life through the voices of the people who lived it.
Listen to this conversation with trans icon, self-described “drag queen,” and Stonewall uprising veteran Sylvia Rivera. Sylvia relives that June 1969 night in vivid detail and describes her struggle for recognition in the movement.
The second part of a never-before-heard interview from 1989.
