New York Dedicates East River Park To Late LGBTQ Civil Rights Icon Marsha P Johnson

KEY POINTS

Brooklyn's East River State Park was renamed after late LGBTQ civil rights activist Marsha P. Johnson
Johnson died in 1992 at the age of 46
The 11-acre waterfront park will have public art and signage reflecting Johnson's role in endorsing LGBTQ rights

Brooklyn's East River State Park was renamed after late LGBTQ civil rights activist Marsha P. Johnson on Monday. It became the first-ever state park in the country to honor an LGBTQ person and a transgender woman of color.

The announcement came Monday, which would have been the transgender civil rights icon's 75th birthday. "I'm proud to announce the dedication of East River State Park in Brooklyn to #MarshaPJohnson. Today, Marsha P. Johnson State Park becomes the first State Park to honor an LGBTQ person," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted. "NY is indebted to her for her brave advocacy and relentless fight for LGBTQ equality."

The 11-acre waterfront park staffers have installed public art reflecting Johnson's style and signage outlining her life and her role in endorsing LGBTQ rights. "Marsha P. Johnson was one of the early leaders of the LGBTQ movement, and is only now getting the acknowledgement she deserves. Dedicating this state park for her, and installing public art telling her story, will ensure her memory and her work fighting for equality lives on," Cuomo said in a statement.

Cuomo first announced the naming in February during the Human Rights Campaign's greater New York gala, according to NBC New York.

Johnson was a pioneering figure in the Stonewall uprising in 1969 that stemmed from the gay community clashing with the law enforcement at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, in the Greenwich Village. New York City police officers had raided the bar to enforce a discriminatory law deeming it illegal to serve alcohol to gay people, an event that instigated the modern LGBTQ civil rights movement.

She was also the founder of the Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group that sought to help homeless transgender youth, before she died at the age of 46 in 1992. Her body was found floating in the Hudson River and police had initially ruled it a suicide, but later reopened the investigation in 2012 at the urging of her family who claimed foul play. The investigation into her death is still ongoing.