As the 50th anniversary of Stonewall approaches, DeLarverie’s pivotal role in both the event itself and the movement it helped build deserves recognition. The Stonewall Rebellion was indeed “disorderly” and DeLarverie frequently used that term to describe her behavior the night of the confrontation.Īlthough now photographs of DeLarverie in all her 1950s and 1960s butch splendor abound on Pinterest, she was more of an unsung hero. Until Stonewall, the New York State Liquor Authority penalized and shut down establishments that served alcohol to known or suspected LGBTQ people, arguing that the mere gathering of homosexuals was “disorderly.” She told me she did.”ĭeLarverie has been identified by eyewitnesses - and has identified herself - as the legendary “Stonewall Lesbian” whose assault by police became the pivotal moment in the conflict that spawned the uprising of gay men, lesbians, drag queens and trans people that night and in the Days of Rage that followed. The New York Times’ obituary of DeLarverie noted, she “threw the first punch” at the police who were harassing patrons of the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, though this has not been confirmed.ĭeLarverie’s friend, activist Lisa Cannistraci, co-founder and current owner of the Greenwich Village club Henrietta Hudson, said, “Nobody knows who threw the first punch, but it’s rumored that she did, and she said she did.
When Stormé DeLarverie died at age 93 on May 24, 2014, it was a mere month before the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion.