Two years later on April 24, the Brooklyn Community Pride Center honored DeLarverie "for her fearlessness and bravery." Exactly one month later, DeLarverie died in her Brooklyn nursing home from a heart attack at 94 years old. honored her at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, where they also aired the 1987 documentary about her. With dementia setting in, she did not know she was living in a nursing home, but she retained her memories of the Stonewall riots and her childhood. In 2010, DeLarverie moved into a nursing home in Brooklyn. She also served as vice president from 1998 to 2000.
ĭeLarverie was also a well-respected member of the Stonewall Veterans Association, holding several offices there including Chief of Security and Ambassador. In New York City, she was known for her community spirit and vigilance. It was an avocation that extended beyond her coworkers for years, DeLarverie stationed herself as pseudo-guardian to lesbian street kids, looking out for them and doing her best to ensure their well-being. DeLarverie acted as a bodyguard, protecting the revue's transgender women and drag queens. DeLarverie was also known at the time for roaming the West Village vigilante-style. Instead, she became a bodyguard for wealthy families during the day and a bouncer (though she did not like that term) at several lesbian bars in the West Village at night. After the passing of Diana, DeLarverie left entertainment almost entirely. According to friend Lisa Cannistraci, DeLarverie carried a photograph of Diana with her at all times. Later lifeĭeLarverie's partner, a dancer named Diana, lived with her for about 25 years until Diana died shortly after the events at Stonewall, in the 1970s. These events gave greater momentum to the gay liberation movement in the U.S., and DeLarverie is today revered for her contributions and activism. Regardless of whether she threw the first punch or yelled to the crowd, her presence there is well established and turned her into an icon in LGBTQIA+ history after the riots - which she felt were not so much riots but an act of disobedience and rebellion.
When she was pulled back and further beaten by the officers, she yelled to the crowd, "Why don't you do something?" DeLarverie herself, and several eye-witnesses, claimed she instigated the uprising. Allegedly, DeLarverie was dragged into the police wagon and attempted to flee toward Stonewall Inn.
She may have been the one who reportedly complained about her handcuffs and was struck with a baton. This may or may not have been the so-called first punch. DeLarverie stated an officer told her to move along, called her a slur referring to a gay man, and hit her she punched back. There is debate over her subsequent role in the riot, with some accounts labelling her as the "cross-dressing lesbian" who threw the first punch that initiated the event. DeLarverie and several fellow butch lesbians attempted to defend their friends, but were beaten by police.
#Storme stonewall license
The officers were physically aggressive with the patrons and began arresting employees for liquor license violations and patrons for "cross-dressing". only saw what they wanted to see and they believed what they wanted to believe.ĭeLarverie was present in the early morning hours on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York City, during the police raid that initiated the Stonewall riots. But you know the strange thing is, I never moved any different than I had when I was wearing women's clothes. And if I ever took my jacket off onstage, the dirt was out. Men's jackets were loose, but the pants were skintight. All I had to do was just be me and let people use their imaginations. At around 18, she realized she was gay and decided to move to Chicago: she said she feared she would be murdered if she stayed in the South. Circus, riding jumping horses side-saddle. She also spent some time as a teenager in Ringling Bros. While growing up, she was so often bullied, attacked, and beaten by peers for being biracial - one incident left her with a leg brace, another resulted in a scar from being left hanging on a fence - that her father ultimately sent her away to private school for her own safety. DeLarverie was primarily raised by her grandfather, while her father paid for her education. She celebrated her birthday on December 24, but was never issued a birth certificate as interracial marriage was against the law at the time. Stormé DeLarverie was born in New Orleans in 1920 to a white father and African American mother, who worked as a servant for DeLarverie's father's family.
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