Stormé DeLarverie

Common card · No. 234760

Stormé DeLarverie (c. December 24, 1920 – May 24, 2014) was an American known as the lesbian whose scuffle with police was, according to DeLarverie and many eyewitnesses, the spark that ignited the Stonewall uprising, spurring the crowd to action. Born in New Orleans, to an interracial couple, she is remembered as a gay civil rights icon and entertainer who performed and hosted at the Apollo Theater and Radio City Music Hall. She worked for much of her life as an MC, singer, bouncer, bodyguard, and volunteer street patrol worker, the last of which earned DeLarverie the moniker, "guardian of lesbians in the Village". She is known as "the Rosa Parks of the gay community."

Read on Wikipedia · Image “Stormé DeLarverié (center), surrounded by three female impersonators at Roberts Show Club,” Schomburg Digital Collections, New York Public Library, 1958. Colorized by Eli Erlick, CC BY 4.0