Speaking of the Stonewall riots, Marsha P. Johnson was there fighting on the first line. Born as Malcolm Michaels Jr in 1945, Johnson spent her whole life fighting for gay causes. She was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front, and also of the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), fighting for many of the rights that members of today's LGBT community take for granted. She was well known among the New York scene at the time, and was a favorite model of Andy Warhol's.
Johnson lived a troubled life, and paid a heavy price for her activism. She struggled to find work, and relied on friends for charitable support and a place to stay. Struggling with both her mental and physical health, she was found dead shortly after the Pride parade in 1992. Friends insist that she was murdered, but police at the time were reluctant to investigate the possibility.