Marsha P. Johnson was a Black trans activist, performer, and revolutionary whose generosity and courage made her one of the most beloved figures of the queer liberation movement. Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1945, she came to New York City as a teenager with almost nothing and made her life on the streets of Greenwich Village, surviving through sex work and finding community among drag queens, hustlers, and homeless youth. Asked what the "P" in her name stood for, she answered, "Pay it no mind." She was part of the resistance at the Stonewall Inn in June 1969, and she became a familiar presence at protests and marches in the years that followed.

In 1970, with Sylvia Rivera, Johnson founded STAR, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. STAR opened a house in the East Village that sheltered homeless trans youth and street kids, whom Johnson and Rivera fed and protected as their own. Johnson worked with the Gay Liberation Front and stood in solidarity with the wider revolutionary movements of her time, insisting that liberation belonged to the poor, the Black and Brown, and those living on the margins. Later, as AIDS devastated her community, she joined ACT UP and cared for friends who were sick and dying, even as the government ignored the crisis.

In July 1992, Johnson's body was found in the Hudson River. Police quickly ruled her death a suicide, but her friends rejected that conclusion, and the case was later reopened. It remains unresolved. Today a state park in Brooklyn bears her name, and her image has become a symbol of trans resistance around the world. Her legacy is a reminder that the movement was built by those with the least, and that radical love and care for one another are at the heart of the struggle for liberation.