Stormé DeLarverie (1920-2014)

Stormé DeLarverie (1920 to 2014) was an American singer, drag king, and gay rights icon born in New Orleans to a Black mother and a white father. She toured for years as an MC and male impersonator with the Jewel Box Revue, a pioneering integrated drag troupe. On the night of the 1969 Stonewall uprising, her scuffle with police, according to her own account and many eyewitnesses, helped spark the crowd to fight back. For decades afterward she worked as a bouncer and volunteer street patrol, earning the nickname "guardian of the lesbians in the Village." She is honored as a founding figure of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.