Who was Sylvia Rivera?

Who was Sylvia Rivera?

Sylvia Rivera was a trans activist who came up from the streets. She was a trans woman who had dealt with substance addiction, she dealt with issues of poverty with life on the streets, and coming out of that situation she had a real connection to and resonance with trans people who had been forced to the fringes of society, because we often lose our families, our jobs, our chance of education, so a lot of trans people do end up on the streets. A lot of trans people are self medicated with drugs at the time because of their great unhappiness, and Sylvia became a figure that they could look up to, that they could turn to and see as a role model because she pulled herself out of that and began to be very vocal in fighting for our rights legally, and also forcing the gay community to continue to include us, because some gay assimilationists found trans people a little too wild and crazy and exotic. They wanted straight people to love the gay community more and they thought the only way to do that would be to cut out the element that was a little more wild. So Sylvia tried to keep us at the table and keep that going, and she's since passed away but she was loved by a lot of people.