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BY CHARLI BATTERSBY | The last time I set foot in the Stonewall Inn, I was volunteering for an LGBT cheerleading team’s fundraiser. I was the only transgender person on the team–and although I didn’t ask everyone at the fundraiser about their gender identity, I’m pretty sure I was the only trans person in the building that night. Six years later, I came to the Stonewall for a June 26, 2025 ceremony that saw the International Imperial Court Council and the National LGBTQ Task Force induct seven transgender people into the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor. And this time around, I was definitely not the only trans person in the building.

Across the street from the Stonewall Inn (53 Christopher St.) is the Stonewall National Monument. Due to changes in federal law, this park can no longer call itself LGB “TQ.” I have heard activists say that I should be outraged by the exclusion of the word “transgender” from the site. But I haven’t visited the monument in years. The allies who are so outraged on my behalf don’t seem to understand that trans people have other things on our minds: Violent crime, housing discrimination, and a widespread hiring bias against us.

As I walked along the fence surrounding the park, I saw gay pride flags tied to every one of the fence posts. There are no trans flags now, because of the government directive.

But wait! There, tucked inside the folds of a rainbow pride flag, someone had put a tiny pink, blue, and white trans flag next to the larger one. Only visible from the right angle. A secret. A message to someone like me.

Some mischievous gender gremlins had engaged in a subtle act of rebellion. As I strolled through the little triangular park, I noticed that more trans flags had been placed around it, subtly.

My “Transponder” went off, alerting me to the presence of other trans people nearby. Across the street from the park, a red carpet photo area had been set up for the Wall of Honor ceremony. A tall, striking trans woman was posing for a photographer in front of the bar. Several drag queens from the International Imperial Court Council were there, too–conspicuous, even on Christopher Street, in their rhinestone crowns and red sequined dresses.

I had stressed over what to wear to this event; the press release made it sound like a wake. Or a mass funeral after a terrorist attack. Of the seven trans people who were being added to the Wall of Honor, several had died within the last few months. One had been brutally tortured to death in February.

Inside, near the upstairs cabaret stage, someone had set up pictures of the honorees. White candles next to each of them. It looked even more like a funeral.

Before the ceremony began, I had time to explore the bar for the first time in years. The Wall of Honor was in the back room. This had been added just a few months before my last visit in 2019. I hadn’t even noticed it then. Even today, it glimmered inconspicuously on the wall in the back room of the ground floor.

Next door was the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center (51 Christopher St.). This wasn’t here six years ago. In June of 2025, the Visitor Center was celebrating its one-year anniversary. I watched curious tourists walk through. Straight tourists come to the West Village to see real live homosexuals, and them thar Pronoun People.

Inside the Center, a couple of young gay men stared at the 60-year-old jukebox. Just like the one you might have seen inside the Stonewall on the night of the 1969 riot. One of the youngsters tried to swipe the glass screen to select a song. Among the lost gay history is how to push “D, 6” on the jukebox to select Judy Garland singing Over the Rainbow.

When I went back upstairs, the ceremony was about to start. The second floor of the Stonewall was filled up. Much of the crowd was composed of family members and friends of the recently departed. Rai Guerra, American Leatherman 2018, led the ceremony by acknowledging the honorees were all trans, saying, “This year we shine a spotlight on our trans siblings, whose courage and resilience continue to inspire us all.”

The national anthem played, and Guerra asked for a moment of silence. The leatherman took off his leather cap. A Puerto Rican drag queen placed her hand over her heart. Everyone was silent. Respectful. Independence Day was only a week away. These are not the America-hating Commie degenerate sodomites they talk about online. 

And it was just us. No news cameras from conservative news channels. No liberal politicians with PR teams clamoring for photo ops. We weren’t “on good behavior” because the normies were watching.

Nicole Murray Ramirez (Founder of the Wall of Honor, City Commissioner in San Diego, Empress Nicole the Great, The Queen Mother I of the Americas, Titular Head of The International Court System) took the podium next. And she had some sobering words: “A community–indeed, a movement–that does not know where it came from or whose shoulders it stands on does not really know where it’s going,” she said–a statement she has used before–and one that’s still relevant.

Empress Nicole reminded everyone in the room about the good and bad parts of that history. June 2025 wasn’t just the 56th anniversary of the Stonewall riots; it was also the 52nd anniversary of the UpStairs Lounge arson attack in New Orleans, and the 9th anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.

And, yes, this ceremony was held exactly 10 years to the day of the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage.

“But what is the reality of our community today?” Empress Nicole asked the crowd, noting, “Only two years ago, The Human Rights Campaign in Washington officially declared a State of Emergency exists in our community. I say bullshit. A state of war exists. A cultural war against us has been declared. And if the HRC and others can’t put their big girl panties on, we will.”

This got a cheer from the crowd. But then it was time for serious introspection. The roster of honorees was a combination of familiar faces from recent events, alongside some lesser-knowns.

As is often the case with transgender people, early deaths among the seven honorees was commonplace. Ruddy “Mami Ruddys” Martinez, dead at 62. The Lady Chablis, dead at 59. Bianca Castro-Arabejo (Jiggly Calient), dead at 44. Sam Nordquist, murdered earlier this year at 24.

A long-lived honoree was Chicago’s Chilli Pepper whose exact age is unreported, but she had been appearing in mainstream media since the 1970s.

Lynn Conway was a bit of an outlier, dying at 86 last year. Conway was a trailblazer, who transitioned in the 1960s and lived “stealth.” Back when Conway transitioned, you didn’t get a medal for your courage. The diversity team at your job didn’t hold a seminar about how your coworkers were legally required to respect your pronouns. 

You’d be fired, lose custody of your children, and have to create a new identity, denying that you were a “transsexual.” The term back then was “woodworking” (like a bug hiding in the woodwork). 

By the end of the 20th century, Conway had come out as trans, and was a meticulous researcher who advocated for trans people, questioning the psychiatrist assumptions that persisted even in the early 21st century (not so long ago).

I hadn’t heard of Alan L. Hart, another honoree. Born in 1890, (Yes EIGHT-teen ninety), he was one of the first transmen to have a hysterectomy, and to use testosterone. He couldn’t get medical authorization to have a hysterectomy for gender change but, because it was the 30s, he was allowed to get it for eugenic purposes (sterilizing himself for having a self-admitted “abnormal inversion”). How’s that for reverse psychology?

The family of Sam Nordquist was asked to speak near the end of the ceremony. Sam had been kidnapped at the end of last year, held prisoner for three months in upstate New York, tortured, and eventually murdered. This was only four months ago. And in New York State, despite New York’s reputation as a safe haven for trans people.

Sam’s family stepped to the podium, but were unable to speak. Too overcome with emotion. Angelica Torres of the Stonewall Gives Back Initiative had to speak on their behalf. “I sincerely want you all to understand what trans people are going through right now,” she told the allies in the audience. “Every single day. Every single minute of every day. We are at risk of violence. We are at risk of abuse. We are at risk of being pushed into poverty. Of being murdered brutally, senselessly. Like Sam was. Sam did not deserve this.”

A powerful, unplanned moment that reminded us all why we hold these ceremonies.

This Year’s Inductees:

Ruddy Martinez: “Mami Ruddys” was the matriarch of Puerto Rico’s LGBTQIA+ community, was a pioneering drag artist, activist and trans woman who, since the 1980s, opened her home to nurture, shelter, and empower young queer people rejected by their families. Education and care in her home were fundamental, making her a beloved figure and steadfast advocate for the island’s LGBTQIA+ youth.

Chili Pepper is best known for her 80s appearances on talk shows like Phil Donahue and Oprah Winfrey to discuss life as a trans woman and debunking harmful stereotypes about the trans and queer community at-large. She was also a fierce activist, largely revered for her AIDS awareness activism.  

Lynn Conway was an electrical engineer, computer scientist and transgender activist who blended both science and equality together as a trailblazing innovator and activist. While facing discrimination as a transgender woman in the STEM field, she created a simplified method of microchip design and co-developed the Very Large-Scale Integration design.  

Alan L. Hart, a physicist, novelist and writer is considered one of the very first people to receive gender affirming surgery and identify and live as a man. Hart moved to Oregon and attended medical school after the typhoid epidemic in 1912 and earned high honors in each school department and contributed to tuberculosis research.  

Jiggly Caliente: Bianca Castro-Arabejo, formerly known as Jiggly Caliente died at 44 on April 27, 2025.  The Filipino-American drag queen rose to acclaimed fame in season four of RuPaul’s Drag Race and also in the sixth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars. She served as a resident judge of Drag Race Philippines and appeared in FX’s Pose as Veronica Ferocity.  

The Lady Chablis: also known as The Doll or The Grand Empress, is a famous transgender performer, actress and entertainer. The performer’s first strike of fame was in her self-portrayal in the film version John Berendt’s nonfiction book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, that highlights the underground nightlife of Savannah, Georgia through the eyes of antiques collector and dealer Jim Williams. The Lady Chablis was also featured in the film’s press run, as she won over audiences with her authentic representation as a Black trans woman in entertainment, media, film, through her lovable charisma and vibrant spirit.  

Sam Nordquist was a Black trans man tortured for nearly three months before being found dead in Hopewell, NY in February 2025. After numerous attempts to report Nordquist missing for two months, Nordquist’s mother filed a report to local police in Canandaigua, NY in February. By then, seven people had tortured, abused, and assaulted Nordquist from December to February. His death mobilized the community and amplified the on-going epidemic of violence in the trans community.

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