The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson Page #5

---

I want to give special thanks to everyone

in the audience for still supporting us.

-[piano music playing]

-[audience cheering]

Of course,

you get the first strange looks.

Ain't bothering me.

Next thing,

you become friends with everybody.

I feel that I have liberated

a lot of people

just by living here in the suburbs,

just by being myself.

Just by being a campy queen.

And they appreciate. They really do.

That's how I was letting out

most of my anger.

But I will not forgive the movement

for anything that they have done

to my community.

-[Victoria] Give me a hug, girl.

-[Rusty Mae Moore] A hug. I'm sorry.

[Victoria] Yes, girl. Oh, good to see you.

-Mmm!

-[Rusty] Mmm. Nice hug.

-Yeah, I like to give good hugs.

-[chuckles]

-Good hugs.

-So, can I open this?

-Sure.

-Thank you.

-You can light it up if you like, too.

-Light it up?

Incense.

Chelsea, come here, girl.

What's the matter with you?

-Give me a hug, baby. Blessed be.

-Blessed be. How you doin'?

Anything you may be able to tell me

may be very, very helpful.

I don't know anything that you can't get

better from Randy Wicker.

Maybe you can tell me about the cops

that were around during that time?

-I really can't.

-You can't?

-No.

-All right.

You went on an investigation

in a white van with Randy. Remember that?

[Randy] Do you always smoke this much,

or is this just because

you're a little nervous?

I always smoke this much

when I'm down here, baby.

Honey, this is a fishing expedition.

We'll either catch something or we won't.

We're just kind of trolling.

Um...

Let's start all over. [clears throat]

Randy wanted to talk about Marsha

and how Marsha had died,

and how we suspected

that she was murdered.

And could I make some highly irregular

and very unofficial inquiries.

And I did, and I really didn't come up

with anything. I wish I had.

[Randy] Where do you wanna go?

[Chelsea] I want to park the van.

We're gonna go talk to the girls.

[Randy] Yeah.

You're gonna be out that back window

with the camera.

[Randy] Close the door

so the lights go off.

You know, I asked around the piers

and in the neighborhood.

And asked around

because I knew a lot of the girls

that were just walking around,

looking into matters

on my own, or whatever.

[Randy] How long have you

been involved in this?

[Chelsea] Twelve years.

You're on the street,

with no place to go and no money.

Most of these girls are underage.

Most of them are more throwaways

than runaways.

And the older ones are people like me

that started out when we were young and...

-[Randy] You're a survivor, then.

-Yes.

I'm practically the only one still alive

from the girls I first started with.

[Randy] What happened to most of them?

Drug overdoses, suicides...

murdered by johns, murdered by pimps.

A lot of girls plain f***ing disappear

the way Marsha did.

[Chelsea] Marsha can't even be understood

in 1992 without the context of...

Dead trannies were literally

washing up on the street.

I mean, lying there dead, and...

no interest shown whatsoever

in doing a damn thing about it.

You know more about this than I do.

[Victoria] Before the Anti-Violence

Project, this is where I worked

from 1993 to 1996...

until I was sexually assaulted

and physically assaulted

by nurses and aides in this building.

Right after this happened,

I couldn't feel the ground beneath me.

And I would get up in the morning

and just walk, walk and walk and walk.

It was like I was walking in a daze,

but when...

I stopped there on Congress.

I had a knife in my pocket

'cause I wanted to hurt them.

What stopped me was

that I was thinking about my mother,

and how would she feel

if I went to jail. [sniffles]

It took me three days to get enough guts

'cause I was angry.

And I finally made the call to AVP.

And the person was so understanding

and knew what I was going through.

I spoke with her for over two hours

of what I was feeling. [sniffles]

The agency stood with me for a year

that I kept on going into court,

back and forth,

case canceled, case postponed.

And I felt supported,

so I just wanted to give back.

So, I volunteered

for the Anti-Violence Project.

Fortunately for me, a space opened up

at administrative assistant,

and from there I moved myself up

to domestic violence counselor advocate.

I helped myself, my family

and the community.

Was AVP involved

with the investigation then?

-[Victoria] Of Marsha's case?

-Yeah.

-Yes.

-Okay, okay. Wow, okay.

-We've been around since 1980.

-Yeah.

So, during that time,

we were involved in the case,

and here's some of the flyers

that AVP had given out.

That's Marsha.

There's her death certificate.

We haven't got the toxicology report

or any pictures, or anything like that.

That's what we're trying to get to see

what condition the body was in,

and if it says

that she had a hole in the head.

It sounds like a lot of people think

it was a murder,

-or that she was pushed.

-Yeah.

A lot of people think

that it was foul play.

But they first said it was suicide.

Some people say

she was giving things away,

-and flowers and some of her clothing.

-Yeah.

I says, well, sometimes a person,

when they're gonna commit suicide,

-they give their things away.

-Yeah.

But then, at the same time,

that's how she was all the time.

-She was always giving--

-She was always giving things away.

Somebody says, "I like your scarf."

"Here, darling."

She'd give 'em the scarf,

or she would go around giving flowers.

That's Marsha.

[crowd cheering]

She had too much to live for,

like she was looking forward to Gay Pride.

-She showed up at Pride...

-Mmm-hmm.

...and was her old regal self,

enjoyable self, and things like that.

-Just normal Marsha.

-[Eddie] Yeah.

[man 1] Marsha!

-[man 2] Marsha!

-[man 1] Marsha!

[Victoria] But the police,

they didn't pay it any mind.

Something that they were accustomed

to sweeping under the rug.

Things that still go on.

Nothing really has changed.

[protesters chanting]

No justice, no peace!

[Frances Baugh] So what's going on

with this case?

They're gonna get motions.

They're getting set for motions.

Then they're gonna

jury selection on Monday.

Okay, okay.

You know, he confessed already twice,

to the detective and to the witness.

How much time do you think he's gonna get?

Who knows?

Back in the '70s,

we went through all this crap.

But back then, it's just that

you didn't hear about all these killings.

You didn't hear about it

because now there's more media coverage.

Right. That's true, yeah.

I gotta text my honey.

Sorry, I have some private business--

-[chuckles] Oh, my God. A honey.

-I'm in love with him.

-You're in love with him?

-Yes, I am.

-You'll be sorry. [chuckles]

-Why? Why do you say that?

Foolish little girl

Fickle little girl

So, this is what I am, huh?

You didn't want him when he wanted you

Love dont need a reason

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes