Monumental plan for trans activists
BY GABE HERMAN
Transgender activists Marsha P.
Johnson and Sylvia Rivera will
be getting a monument in the
city, with the proposed location in the
Village at the Ruth Wittenberg Triangle,
Mayor Bill de Blasio and First
Lady Chirlane McCray announced on
May 30.
The monument is part of the She
Built NYC project, which honors pioneering
women. It would be the fi rst
permanent public artwork in the world
to honor transgender women.
Ruth Wittenberg Triangle is blocks
away from the Stonewall Inn, now a
national monument and where Johnson
and Rivera were key fi gures in the
Stonewall Uprising of 1969.
In 1970, Johnson and Rivera cofounded
STAR, standing for Street
Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.
The group provided housing and support
for L.G.B.T. street youth, including
transgender sex workers.
The fi rst STAR House was in Greenwich
Village, and was the fi rst L.G.B.T.
youth shelter in North America. STAR
was also the fi rst organization in America
led by transgender women of color.
Rivera and Johnson were advocates
for many causes and marginalized
groups, including homeless people,
H.I.V.-positive youth, young people of
color marginalized in the broader campaign
for L.G.B.T. rights, and people
PHOTO BY DIANA DAVIES/NY PUBLIC LIBRARY
Marsha P. Johnson protesting
Bellevue Hospital’s treatment
of street people and gay people,
circa 1968-75.
with disabilities. They fought for all
people to have proper access to healthcare.
Rivera died from liver cancer at age
50 in 2002. She lived on New York’s
streets from a young age, after running
away from her grandmother at
age 11 due to her criticism of Rivera
being gender-defying, according to a
She Built NYC bio. Rivera worked as
a child prostitute before being taken in
by a community of drag queens. She
told The Villager that she had lived for
a time on the Greenwich Village waterfront.
Rivera brought back STAR in 2001
to campaign for the city’s Transgender
Rights Bill and inclusion of transgender
protections in the state’s Sexual
Orientation Non-Discrimination Act,
or SONDA.
Johnson was born in Elizabeth, New
Jersey. She moved to New York City
after high school and struggled with
homelessness, but advocated for gay
and transgender street youth, along
with sex workers and people in prison.
Johnson performed with a drag
group called Hot Peaches and was photographed
by Andy Warhol.
Her body was found in the Hudson
River on July 6, 1992, and her cause of
death remains unsolved. She was 46.
“Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera
are undeniably two of the most
important foremothers of the modern
L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement. Yet their
stories have been erased from a history
they helped create,” McCray said.
“From their leading role at Stonewall,
to their revolutionary work supporting
transgender and non-binary youth
in our city, they charted a path for the
activists who came after them. Today,
we correct the record. The city Marsha
and Sylvia called home will honor their
legacy and tell their stories for generations
to come.”
De Blasio declared the monument
would “send a clear message.”
“Transgender and non-binary communities
are reeling from violent and
discriminatory attacks across the country,”
he said. “Here in New York City,
we are sending a clear message: We see
you for who you are, we celebrate you,
and we will protect you. This monument
to Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia
Rivera will honor their pioneering role
in the fi ght for human rights in our city
and across the world.”
“I have been waiting decades to see
these trans revolutionary women honored,”
said Tanya Asapansa-Johnson
Walker, cofounder of the New York
Transgender Advocacy Group. “They
were on the frontlines of the gay movement
and deserve this honor.”
The statues for the monument will
reportedly cost about $750,000, and
come out of $10 million that de Blasio
has allocated for new public artworks.
The city has issued an open call, with a
deadline of Oct. 1, for artists interested
in creating the monument.
The traffi c island bounded by Greenwich
and Sixth Aves. and Christopher
St., was named for legendary activist
Ruth Wittenberg in 1990. Wittenberg
served on Community Board 2 for 40
years and was part of the effort to close
the Women’s House of Detention and
create the Jefferson Market Garden on
its former site. She is commemorated
by a small plaque in the triangle’s pavement.
Cuomo onboard with new LIRR ‘gateway’
BY GABE HERMAN
Penn Station redevelopment plans continue to
move forward, including a new main entrance
for the Long Island Rail Road that may make
the cramped and dingy station a bit more agreeable
to commuters.
Final designs for the new entrance — at 33rd St.
and Seventh Ave. — were unveiled by Governor Andrew
Cuomo on May 16. The entrance will connect
directly to the LIRR main concourse, and include
three escalators, an elevator and a stairway.
Currently, the only direct entrance to the LIRR
level is on 34th St., and the goal of the new portal is
to relieve congestion and safety issues stemming from
high congestion.
The LIRR 33rd St. concourse will be widened under
the new project, from 30 feet to 57 feet. And the
ceiling height will increase to 18 feet, from its current
heights of 7 and 8 feet, which adds to the place’s
cramped feeling. The project will also improve the
station’s lighting.
Construction for the new entrance is set to start in
June, and fi nish by December 2020.
Costs are budgeted at around $600 million. That
includes $170 million from the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority’s current 2015-19 capital program,
with the rest coming from New York State.
About 250,000 people take the LIRR daily, and
another 235,000 use trains from New Jersey Transit.
In addition, 115,000 people use the subway at Penn
COURTESY GOVERNOR CUOMO’S OFFICE
A design rendering of the new LIRR entrance
on Seventh Ave. and 33rd St. It would sit just
north of Penn Station’s main entrance.
Station station or visit its retail stores.
This project is part of a larger Penn Station reconstruction
that includes turning the Farley Post Offi ce,
at Eighth Ave. between W. 31st and 33rd Sts., into the
new Moynihan Train Hall. Named for the late Senator
Patrick Moynihan, the hall is also scheduled to open
in December 2020. It will boast nine platforms and
17 tracks to service LIRR and Amtrak trains.
“Penn Station was one of the great railroad stations
of the world, but now it’s not fi t for the greatest city in
the nation,” Cuomo said when the main entrance’s fi -
nal design was unveiled. “That’s why we are creating
a world-class train hall at Moynihan and today we are
announcing a new East End Gateway to bring more
access, safety and light. Passengers will be able to
come in that 33rd St. entrance and avoid the front
of Penn Station, there will be less traffi c and you’ll
have access to the subway and the LIRR. It will be
a gateway to a world-class facility. This is not a proposal
— we are getting to work now.”
Praising the station’s upcoming changes and giving
credit to the governor were local leaders, including
state Senator Brad Hoylman, Manhattan Borough
President Gale Brewer, Assemblymember Richard
Gottfried and Vikki Barbero, chairperson of Community
Board 5.
“This new iconic entrance, along with widened
corridors, heightened ceilings and new retail, will
dramatically improve the experience for the 600,000-
plus people who use Penn Station daily,” said Janno
Lieber, M.T.A. chief development offi cer. Lieber
thanked Cuomo for his leadership on the project.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has famously sparred
with Cuomo on transportation issues, also touted the
project as a much-needed improvement.
“Penn Station opens New York City up to hundreds
of thousands of people each day,” de Blasio said.
“Those who use it deserve a station as vibrant as the
city itself. We look forward to working closely with
the governor, the M.T.A., local offi cials and the community
to make the vision a reality.”
8 June 6, 2019 TVG Schneps Media