STARR Celebrates 55th Anniversary of Stonewall with Rally to Demand City Honor Settlement to Build Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Shelters
NEW YORK–At 11am on Friday, June 28th, Mariah Lopez and STARR (Strategic Trans Alliance for Radical Reform) will join activists, legal advocates, and at-risk trans New Yorkers to demand New York City honor a 2021 legal settlement to build four transgender and gender nonconforming shelters.
Mariah Lopez v. NYC Department of Homeless Services (DHS) brought damning evidence of NYC DHS’s failure to serve transgender people in safe shelters. Under the settlement in 2021, the City agreed to establish shelter units that serve and affirm trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Manhattan; provide shelter staff (including contractors) training on the rights of TGNC people; require that shelter staff (including contractors) follow a non-discrimination policy; and strengthen the complaint investigation process when shelter residents allege anti-trans discrimination or harassment.
No such shelters have been built to date, leaving the City out of compliance with the settlement. The rally will call on the City to honor their commitment and celebrate STARR’s founding by Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera after the historic June 28, 1969 Stonewall Rebellion.
DATE: Friday, June 28, 2024
TIME: 11:00am
WHERE: Foley Square
WHO:
Mariah Lopez, Executive Director of STARR
Carolyn Wolpert, former New York City government attorney
Transgender rights activists and currently unhoused transgender community members
Contact: Mitch Schwartz, 914-330-1026
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About STARR
Originally formed by Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera in 1969 after the Stonewall Rebellion, STAR(R) was one of the first Trans led organizations to help New York City’s Trans, Gender Non Conforming, and Sex Worker folx in acquiring immediate daily needs such as housing, food, and community. In addition to mutual aid work, STARR also fought for laws protecting TGNC and Sex Worker folx in addition to battling their own homelessness, and discrimination within the LGBTQ+ community.
Today, Strategic Transgender Alliance for Radical Reform extends Sylvia and Marsha’s legacy by building lasting and productive bonds between other existing organizations, action groups, political and non-political lobbying entities, public corporations, sovereign governments and individuals involved in the global human rights movement.