Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries

Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) -- later renamed Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries—was a gay, gender non-conforming and transgender street activist organization founded in 1970 by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, subculturally-famous New York City drag queens of color.

Both founders were long-term civil rights activists, and were present during the 1969 Stonewall riots and the intense period of gay organizing that began in the wake of Stonewall.

On August 28, 1970, a sit-in protest at Weinstein Hall of New York University after the administration cancelled planned dances there. Reportedly, The Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee, who were organizers of the first Gay Pride Parade, held on the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots, coordinated a series of four dances, to be held at Weinstein Hall as fundraisers for legal, medical and housing services for the gay community. The “Dance-a-Fairs” were booked with the Weinstein Hall Student Governing Association and it was later speculated that administration canceled the later dances because a gay organization was sponsoring the events. The sit-in was held by the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), Radicalesbians and other activists.

Both Rivera and Johnson were often homeless themselves. When they were able to rent a hotel room or an apartment, they would sneak homeless friends into their rooms - sometimes up to 50 at a time. After the sit ins, Rivera had the idea of forming an organization to provide more permanent housing for homeless people in their community:

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