Candl02.gif (3436 bytes)
Candl02.gif (3436 bytes)
Home
Photo Album
 
Sylvia Rae Rivera
STONEWALL
Rebellion Veterans Association
 Past S.V.A. Executive Committee


1972

Sylvia Rivera after Court with S.V.A. Attorney Hal Weiner, Esq.



Photo outside of New York City Criminal Court:  Sylvia and Hally Weiner, Esq.
[Photo credit and courtesy of STONEWALL Rebellion Veterans Assciation Archives]






1994

Allyson Allante, Sylvia Rivera, Ivana Valentin

Gay Pride event title:  "Queens of Stonewall"
Front and center Sylvia Rivera with the S.V.A.
Queen Allyson on the left / Ivana Valentin on the right
[Photography by Benay Phillips]


*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
 

Sylvia Rivera SVA 1995

Allyson, Ivana and Sylvia on Parade on Christopher Street, USA
[Photo by Leigh McManus]


*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Ivana Valentin, Allyson, Sylvia Rivera

Close-Up:  Ivana Valentin, Queen Allyson and Sylvia Rivera
Note:  Front blue fender of 1969 "Stonewall Car" shown on left.
[Photo by Leigh McManus]






   
Sylvia Rae Rivera had her Gay wish come true:  get out of the institutional facility and lead the "Stonewall 25 Anniversary March" with her long ago Stonewall associates.  "So Emotional", as the Gay-favorite song bi Whitney Houston goes, describes this triumphant and reunited moment shown below in the picture with two of the legendary "Queens of Stonewall":  Queen Allyson Allante and Sylvia Rae Rivera.  That's why they are together!!  Both are officials of the legendary STONEWALL Rebellion Veterans Association ("S.V.A."); Allyson the elected S.V.A. Spokesperson and Sylvia the newly-added member of the S.V.A. Stonewall Committee.  Just before the below photo was taken, both Stonewall legends had just given a very comprehensive and emotional interview to two of The New York Times reporters, among many other journalists from all around the World.  Allyson was holding back tears (thus without her expected charismatic smile) and Sylvia clearly just released an emotional moment and slightly opened her mouth simply to exhale!  Shown in the photo below, Queen Allyson Allante, who contributed, continued and greatly expanded the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender ("G.L.B.T.") movement for a quarter-of-a-century at this point in 1994, is joined, since the outset of the "Spirit of Stonewall March" down at The STONEWALL Club site, by Sylvia Rae Rivera, who had been out of New York City for about 20 or 21 years!  Clearly, she couldn't have gotten anything done then.  Sylvia was quick to tell you that she was "tripping" for a lot of years.  Nonetheless, to help out the Stonewall veteran, the STONEWALL Veterans' Association sent Syvia an S.V.A. check for better living several times a year.  During the same period of Sylvia's NYC absence is when the G.L.B.T. community really was expanded on top of the foundation established as of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion.  As shown in the photo, both Allyson and Sylvia are sitting atop the back seat of the blue historic 1969 "Stonewall Car" -- which led the entire historic "Spirit of Stonewall March" and right into historic Central Park!  For Sylvia it was "...really the happiest day of my life"!

Queen Allyson Allante & Sylvia Rae Rivera

Emotional moment:  Queen Allyson (muave) and Sylvia Rivera (yellow) leading "SW-25" March
[Photo by ACT-UP and S.V.A. member John O'Brien]


Sylvia Rae Rivera was very calm and appreciative this special "Stonewall" day as she had just been freed from a controlled physical and mental situation institution, St. Joseph's in Westchester.  She was now "clean and sober" -- free of drugs and alcohol and many of her demons.  Sylvia was only released from the treatment hospital days before "Stonewall-25" thanks to the perservering and successful efforts of longtime Gay activist H. Randy Wicker and S.V.A. founder Willson L. Henderson, also the director of the STONEWALL Rebellion Veterans Association ("S.V.A.")!  And, thanks to Randy and Willson, everything was taken care of for Sylvia -- including a temporary home (inconveniently in New Jersey by Randy) and a part-time job (conveniently in Greenwich Village by Willson).  Since the Stonewall veterans chose Allyson to speak on stage, Sylvia did not even have to worry about public speaking -- much less ranting or raving!  Further, Randy gave Sylvia the money to buy a dress, lingerie, pumps, a wig, lashes and cosmetics whereas Willson gave her a hundred dollar bill to have as her own spending money as well as an SVA-arranged and pre-paid facial, manicure and pedicure at Randee Elaine Salon in Greenwich Village.  Plus, via Willson, he treated Sylvia, and many other Stonewall Vetz, to a five-course dinner and drinks after the march and rally and reunion at an A-1 Greenwich Village restaurant.

By the way, unlike Allyson, Sylvia, Beverly, Electra and Brooke Lynn, all of the other "Girlz of Stonewall" such as Mary Twist, Yvonne Ritter, Eleanor Rigby, Ivana Valentin, Rona Bellida and Terri Van Dyke made the big, non-united and disloyal mistake of marching in the 'official' bureaucratic Heritage of Shame-backed Gay Pride March up First Avenue.  That march was supposedly protesting past the closed-on-a-Sunday United Nations building.  They -- and thousands of other people -- were duped into falsely believing that the alternative "Spirit of Stonewall March" would not occur!  They should have asked Willson!  After being invited by the S.V.A., many Stonewall veterans telephoned the S.V.A. whining that they did not want to be left in the dust of a non-march?  Too bad for them that, in the 'official' march, those legendary Stonewall girls literally had to hotly schlep in pump heels on the "Shoe Leather Expressway", not ride with grandeur and ease on "Gay Pride Boulevard" in an eye-catching, candy blue, classic 1969 convertible known as the "Stonewall Car".





Stonewall Veterans after Stage Appearance at Central Park Gay Pride Rally

After many years absence, Sylvia Rivera reunited with STONEWALL Rebellion Veterans
Shown:  Queen Allyson, Jeremiah Newton, Sylvia, Cristina Hayworth, Yvonne Ritter,
Ivana Valentin, Danny Darvin, Terri Van Dyke and Rolando Morales-Torres of PR

[Photo by Leigh McManus of the S.V.A.]
   






*

Another pic of Sylvia Rae and SVA-ers will be
 placed here -- thanks for being soooo patient!








The Demise of Sylvia Rivera Reported in The New York Times

*

www.NYTimes.com/2002/02/20/NYregion/Sylvia-Rivera-50-Gay-Liberation-Movement

Unfortunately, dumb David Dunlap, the half-baked reporter from The New York Times ("NYX") had some information mixed up in his obituary on Sylvia Rivera whereas other crucial 411 he simply failed to report.  One glaring example is failing to describe how for the monumental "Spirit of Stonewall March" on Sunday, June 25, 1994, commemorating the colossal 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, Sylvia Rivera rode in the famous 1969 blue convertible, popularly known as the "Stonewall Car", and owned by the STONEWALL Veterans' Association ("SVA"), for the entire and huge 'unauthorized' "Spirit of Stonewall March" from Stonewall Triangle in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, all the way up to and into Central Park!  His story, laden with inexcusable misinformation and gross omissions, was not helped with Sylvia's own rollercoaster recollections.  For example, she wrongly stated that she "...walked down 58th Street (?) and the young ones were calling from the sidewalk "Sylvia, Sylvia, Sylvia".   First of all, Sylvia rode in the 1969 "Stonewall Car" for the entire march!  Secondly, after a quarter-of-a-century of alcoholism, chain smoking, drug abuse and overdoses, lack of nutrition and twenty-five years older, Sylvia was basically not recognizable.  Besides, she was out of Manhattan for many years, including institutionalized in a facility due to hallucinations, incoherence, memory loss, etc.  Actually, the 'young ones' were shouting out:  "...stonewall!  Stonewall!  STONEWALL!!...."  Nonetheless, Sylvia privately and publicly, with tears trickling down her face, declared that:  "Stonewall 25 with the STONEWALL Veterans' Association, my Stonewall comrades and the Stonewall convertible, is the proudest and best day of my crazy life!  I am forever indebted to Willson Lee Henderson and Randy Wicker and the S.V.A. for making this great day possible for me"!  Considering that such 411 and much more was and is quite accessible through the S.V.A. eyewitness members, press releases, videotapes, photographs, testimonials, television coverage, flyers, radio interviews and written stories in addition to photos, testimonials and text on the S.V.A. website, Dum Dunlap's omissions are a violation of accurate and ethical reporting.  Sylvia would totally agree!  She'd shout out at him:  "U dum bytch"!







 
=transition=
Sylvia Rae Rivera

Sunrise:  
July 2, 1951
Bronx-Lebanon Hospital
The Bronx, New York City

Sunset:  
February 19, 2002
St. Vincent's Catholic Hospital
Greenwich Village, New York City
 

*


 27th June
2021

Gay PRIDE Month!

*

=====2021:  52nd Anniversary of the Gay Stonewall Rebellion=====
[Friday night, June 27 ~through~ Thursday evening, July 3, 1969, Manhattan, New York City]

*
   
Candl02.gif (3436 bytes)
Candl02.gif (3436 bytes)
Home
Photo Album