because i think this deserves it's own post: ive seen the rhetoric that because marsha never outright referred to herself as a trans woman (that i know of), lots of cis people tend to try to erase her identity or at least make it seem like she was a cis gay man, which if you've read anything about her at all you know she wasn't.
while labels do change and i cant find any record of marsha outright saying "I AM A TRANS WOMAN", she did refer to herself as a woman quite often like, for example, on rapping with a street revolutionary: an interview with marsha p. johnson when she literally straight up says "Lots of times they tell me, “You’re not a woman!” I say, “I don’t know what I am if I’m not a woman." (actual quote copy pasted DIRECTLY from the s.t.a.r. survival, revolt and queer antagonist book). can we say for sure that if marsha was alive to this day she'd identify as a trans woman? no. can we make a pretty fair assumption, considering she's definitely not cis and tended to call herself a woman? i think so.
and either way, even if she's not a trans woman, again, she is definitely not cis. she reportedly desired gender reaffirming surgery, back then more commonly referred to as sex change surgery. she presented femininely. she used exclusively she/her pronouns. she called herself a woman. she used feminine terms to refer to herself. if she was or wasn't a binary trans woman is pretty much meaningless at this point - marsha was absolutely trans, and so was sylvia rivera, and saying otherwise is just trans erasure, plain and simple.
don't pretend that trans people that are important to queer history are actually cis. there are cis people important to queer history. focus on them if you want. leave marsha and sylvia alone and respect their memory by respecting their identity.
⚠️do not pretend ex cop fred sargeant is a reliable source on my post or i will lose my shit⚠️
