At 1:20 a.m. on June 28, 1969, a Black butch lesbian in a tuxedo was being shoved into a paddy wagon outside the Stonewall Inn. She had already been clubbed across the head. She turned to the crowd that was watching, hundreds strong on Christopher Street, and shouted six words history would not forget. The riot started seconds later. Her name was Stormé DeLarverie.
Who Was Stormé DeLarverie?
Stormé DeLarverie was born December 24, 1920, in New Orleans. Her mother was Black and worked as a domestic servant. Her father was white, the son of the family that employed her mother. Stormé grew up between two worlds in a city that did not legally recognize either. She started singing professionally at fifteen, working theaters across the South, and by her twenties she was a working performer in Chicago and New York.
She was tall, broad-shouldered, with a baritone voice and the kind of jawline that confused people. She wore men's suits before that was a sentence anyone said out loud in polite company. By the early 1950s she was the only woman performing in the Jewel Box Revue, billed as "25 Men and a Girl." The audience usually could not tell which one was the girl.
The Jewel Box Revue: One Woman, Twenty-Five Men, One Stage
The Jewel Box Revue ran from 1939 into the 1970s and was the first racially integrated drag revue in North America. It played Black theaters, white theaters, Las Vegas casinos, and the Apollo in Harlem. The act ended every night with the same reveal: the MC, the only "man" who wasn't actually a man, would step forward and remove her wig. Audiences gasped every time.
Stormé held that role from 1955 to 1969, fourteen years. She was the headliner, the MC, the male impersonator who anchored a touring revue of female impersonators. She crossed gender lines and color lines on the same stage, in the same suit, every night, for a decade and a half before Stonewall.
★ Stormé at a Glance
| Born | December 24, 1920, New Orleans |
| Died | May 24, 2014, Brooklyn, New York |
| Known as | The Stonewall Lesbian, Guardian of the Lesbians |
| Career | Singer, MC, male impersonator with the Jewel Box Revue (1955 to 1969) |
| Famous for | The arrest that sparked the Stonewall uprising, June 28, 1969 |
| Later work | Bouncer and bodyguard at New York lesbian bars for 35 years |
The Night the Stonewall Inn Fought Back
The Stonewall Inn was a Mafia-owned gay bar on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. It was filthy, watered down the drinks, and had no fire exits. It was also one of the only places in New York where queer people, including Black drag performers, butch lesbians, and homeless trans youth, could dance together. The NYPD raided it every few weeks.
Just past midnight on Saturday, June 28, 1969, the Sixth Precinct rolled up again. They lined patrons up outside, demanded ID, and started hauling people into wagons. The usual humiliation. The usual injustice.
Stormé was one of the patrons taken outside. She was forty-eight years old, in her trademark tuxedo, and not in the mood. According to multiple witnesses, an officer hit her on the head with a billy club. She fought back. As the cops wrestled her into handcuffs, she turned to the crowd on the sidewalk and yelled, "Why don't you guys do something?"
The crowd did something.
What followed was six nights of street battles between police and queer New Yorkers. The Stonewall uprising became the founding moment of the modern Pride movement. The first Pride march, exactly one year later on June 28, 1970, marked the anniversary of that night.
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1969 The year a Black butch lesbian's arrest outside a Mafia bar in Greenwich Village launched the modern Pride movement. |
Why the Punch Matters
For decades the story of Stonewall got cleaned up. The mainstream version put a generic white gay man at the center of the riot, scrubbed the trans women of color who threw bricks and bottles, and forgot the Black butch lesbian in handcuffs whose six words lit the fuse.
That version is wrong, and the people who were there always said so.
Sylvia Rivera credited Stormé with throwing the first punch. Lisa Davis, the historian who interviewed Stormé directly for years, confirmed it. Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Stormé DeLarverie were on Christopher Street that night. They were the ones who fought. They were not symbols. They were people, mostly poor, mostly working class, mostly women of color, mostly the kind of people who don't get written into official histories.
Stormé being remembered correctly matters because the people the movement was built on still get pushed out of it. Black butch lesbians, trans women of color, drag performers, sex workers, and homeless queer youth started this. The flag flies because of them.
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Stormé's Life After Stonewall
Stormé did not retire to write a memoir. She kept working. For the next thirty-five years she patrolled lesbian bars in Greenwich Village and Brooklyn as a bouncer, a bodyguard, and what she called a "babysitter for baby butches." She carried a licensed .38 revolver in her waistband and a stack of business cards that read: Stormé DeLarverie, Singer, Songstress, MC, Bodyguard.
She watched for "ugliness." That was her word for it. Catcalls, threats, men trying to grab women on their way to the bathroom. She intervened, every time. Generations of New York lesbians remember her standing at the door of the Cubby Hole and Henrietta Hudson, eyes on the street, gun in her belt.
She co-founded the Stonewall Veterans Association alongside other survivors. She marched in the parade every year she could. She gave interviews to anyone who asked. She told the same story over and over again, hoping someone would finally write it down right.
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How to Honor Her Legacy Today
Stormé did not ask for monuments. She asked for protection of queer people, especially queer women of color, especially butch lesbians and trans women, especially the ones who get forgotten. Here are five ways to honor her work that don't cost much and matter a lot.
| 1 | Say her name. When you tell the Stonewall story, tell the real one. Stormé DeLarverie threw the first punch, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were on the front line, and the riot was built by Black and brown queer people. Don't let the whitewashed version stand. |
| 2 | Protect butch lesbians. They are erased from corporate Pride campaigns, sidelined in mainstream gay culture, and caught in the crossfire of anti-trans rhetoric that does not bother to draw a line. Show up for them publicly. |
| 3 | Support Black lesbian organizers. The Audre Lorde Project, House of GG, Brave Space Alliance, and the Black Trans Femmes in the Arts collective do the work Stormé did. Donate. Volunteer. Buy their merch. Boost their fundraisers. |
| 4 | Fly the flags. Lesbian flag for her identity. Intersectional Progress flag for the Black and brown queer people Stonewall was built on. Rainbow flag for the movement her punch helped create. |
| 5 | Visit the Stonewall National Monument. It sits at 51 to 53 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ history. Stand on the spot where Stormé yelled at the crowd. The plaque is small. The history is large. |
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Common Misconceptions
A lot of bad Stonewall takes still float around online. Here are four to retire.
MISTAKE 01
"A white gay man threw the first punch"
This version got into newspapers in the 1970s and stayed there because it was less threatening to mainstream audiences. The people actually at Stonewall, including Sylvia Rivera and Stormé herself, repeatedly named Stormé as the one who fought back first.
MISTAKE 02
"Stonewall was a peaceful protest"
It was a six-night street riot. Bricks were thrown. Bottles were thrown. Cars were rocked. Police barricaded themselves inside the bar at one point. The first Pride was a memorial to that, not a parade.
MISTAKE 03
"Stormé was a man"
Stormé was a butch lesbian who performed as a male impersonator. She used she/her pronouns. She is a foundational figure in lesbian history. Calling her a man because she wore a suit is the exact kind of erasure she spent her life fighting.
MISTAKE 04
"She's just a footnote"
Stormé is named in every serious history of Stonewall written by people who actually interviewed the participants. She was a Stonewall veteran, the lead male impersonator of the most important drag revue in American history, and the protector of an entire generation of New York lesbians. Not a footnote. The foundation.
Stormé fought alongside Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, and her punch made the first Pride parade possible. For more on why Pride Month falls in June, the answer starts on Christopher Street the night Stormé yelled at the crowd. The Lesbian Pride Flag and Audre Lorde's writing both carry her work forward.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Stormé DeLarverie throw the first punch at Stonewall?
According to multiple witnesses, including Sylvia Rivera, and according to Stormé herself, yes. She was struck on the head by a police officer, fought back, and as she was being put into a paddy wagon she called out to the crowd to act. The crowd reacted, and the riot started. She is widely credited as the spark.
Was Stormé DeLarverie Black?
Yes. Stormé was biracial, born to a Black mother and a white father in New Orleans in 1920. She identified as Black and built her career within Black theater circuits, including the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Her Blackness is central to her story and to who actually carried Stonewall: queer people of color.
What was the Jewel Box Revue?
The Jewel Box Revue was a touring drag revue that ran from 1939 into the 1970s. It was the first racially integrated drag revue in North America. Stormé was its lead male impersonator and MC from 1955 to 1969. The act billed itself as "25 Men and a Girl," with Stormé being the "Girl" who performed as a man.
Was Stormé a drag king?
By modern terminology, yes. She performed as a male impersonator, wore men's formal wear on stage, and was the only woman in a revue of female impersonators. She is considered one of the most important drag king performers in American history.
When did Stormé DeLarverie die?
Stormé died on May 24, 2014, in Brooklyn, New York. She was 93 years old. Her funeral was held at the LGBT Community Center in Manhattan and was attended by hundreds of New Yorkers, many of them lesbians she had personally protected over the decades.
Where can I learn more about Stormé DeLarverie?
The 1987 documentary "Storme: The Lady of the Jewel Box" by Michelle Parkerson is a primary source. Historian Lisa Davis interviewed Stormé extensively for years. The Stonewall Veterans Association archive in New York City holds many of Stormé's personal papers, performance posters, and photographs.
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Carry Her Flag Forward Stormé spent fifty years protecting queer people. The least we can do is fly the flag and tell the real story. |
