The radical, defiant legacy of Stonewall veteran Miss Major

Words by Eliel Cruz

In the early morning of June 28th, 1969, as the riots at Stonewall Inn began in response to the police surveillance and violence, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy clashed with a cop, took his mask off, and spat in his face. She had previously dealt with police, arrested for sex work (or “hooking”, as she’d say), and knew it was better to pass out than to fight and continue to get beaten. “He knocked my ass out,” she told SF Weekly in 2015. “That's the last thing I remember. When I woke up, I was in the Tombs, and the next day they just let us all out.” That night, alongside other Stonewall veterans – Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Stormé DeLarverie, and countless others – they revolted against the state’s violence and began an uprising credited as a catalyst for the modern LGBTQIA+ movement.