Audience members would attempt to “guess the girl,” ultimately being surprised during a song entitled “Surprise with a Song” that the girl was actually DeLarverie, who was often sporting a mustache and a tailored suit. In 1955, began touring as the MC and the only drag king in the Jewel Box Revue - the first racially integrated drag show, appearing regularly at the Apollo Theater. DeLarverie carried a photo of Diana with her for the rest of her life. She entered into a relationship with a dancer named Diana, who she was with for about 25 years until Diana’s death in the ’70s. In her teenage years, she joined the circus - getting a job riding jumping horses for Ringling Brothers Circus, until she was injured in a fall and was unable to resume the work.ĭeLarverie realized she was a lesbian around the age of 18. (I’m not sure why you’d pick that if you’re given a choice, but I guess we can’t all have June birthdays…) As a kid, DeLarverie was bullied constantly. DeLarverie’s exact date of birth was never exactly known, so she celebrated it on December 24. Sometimes called “the Rosa Parks of the gay community,” Stormé DeLarverie was a butch lesbian who’s arrest is often credited as the moment that sparked the Stonewall Riots - despite being quite adamant that “it was a rebellion, it was an uprising, it was a civil rights disobedience – it wasn’t no damn riot.”ĭeLarverie was born in 1920 to a white man and a black woman - who worked as a servant for her father’s family.
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