Some say she threw the punch that started the Stonewall Uprising on June 27, 1969 and launched the Gay liberation movement. No one really knows who threw that punch, but Stormé DeLaverie (day-la-vee-ay) was an entertainer, a bouncer, an activist, and a drag king with zero tolerance for discrimination.
Early Life
Born in New Orleans in the 1920s, Stormé (who pronounced her name as Storm) said she never knew her birth parents and that never knew the exact her date of birth. As a mixed-race child born two decades before mixed marriages were legal, a birth certificate wasn’t issued. She chose December 24th as her birthday, perhaps because it was the day before her foster mother’s birthday.
The stories about Stormé’s childhood are varied. Perhaps because she didn’t want to face some of the pain and shame she suffered as a child, perhaps because as an entertainer she embellished some of her stories.
She often said she was born in 1920. One source states she was born in 1923.
One story says she was raised by foster parents (Harvey and Rose (Conway) Hublitz) who adopted her by 1940. The name on her adoption papers was Viva Hublitz. She had an older brother named George and an older sister named Carrie.
Another source quoted her as saying her father gave her a private education, and her grandfather raised her. She implied that since interracial marriages were illegal her birth parents couldn’t marry, but insisted her mother never wanted for anything. And after they moved her father legally married her mother.
Facing Bullies & Discrimination
“I was a negro with a white face.” Everybody beat young Stormé up, the white kids and the black kids.
After one incident where “they left me hanging on the fence” by one leg. Her injury left a scar. She had to wear a brace on that leg but stopped wearing it about a year later. She had a limp for the rest of her life.
Her father finally told her that if she didn’t stop running, she’d be running the rest of her life. “I stopped running when I was 15 and I haven’t run a day since.”
After that she had no tolerance for discrimination in any form, she called it “ugliness.”
Her vocal talents gained attention by the age of 15. She sang at church, in school concerts, and at local events.
Stormé graduated in 1942.
Entertainer
Stormé left home between 1942 and 1943. She appeared as a soloist with the Alliance Municipal Band Concert series. Later she won an amateur talent show singing with a jazz band in Nebraska. She sang professionally in Omaha as “Stormy Dale.” At some point during those years, she met Diana, an aerialist and dancer, who became the love of Stormé’s life.
She toured the black theater circuit across the country. Newspaper and magazines mention her appearing in Chicago and Orlando. There’s even a mention of her appearing in St. Louis in 1947. In the 1950s, she showed up in New York.
In 1955 she became the “One Girl” in North America’s first racially integrated drag revue, a traveling show called the Jewel Box Revue. The one girl amongst twenty-five female impersonators, Stormé was the drag King and master of ceremonies from 1955 to 1969. They toured in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
With zero tolerance for discrimination, she patrolled local gay bars to stop the “ugliness” and help anyone who needed food or bail money.
Fashion
At the time, New York law required people to wear at least three pieces of clothing that matched the gender they were assigned at birth. Stormé tried to follow the law. She wore women’s clothing on the street and men’s clothing at the theaters. She gave up following the law after her second arrest for being a drag queen.
Biracial Stormé could pass for white or black, male or female. She wore gender-nonconforming fashion decades before unisex styles became accepted, and is still a major influence on the fashion industry.
The Stonewall Inn
Stonewall Inn, on Christopher Street, was one of many establishments owned by the Genovese crime family. It was the only bar for gay men in New York City, the only one that allowed dancing.
Through a peephole in the door, a bouncer tried to identify and prevent the underaged or undercover cops from entering the place. There were two dance floors with walls painted black and pulsing gel lights or black lights.
Police raids on gay bars were frequent, averaging once a month per bar. During a raid, management turned regular white lights on and the music turned off. Customers stopped dancing and touching and lined up for police to check their IDs. If you had no ID or were in full drag, they’d arrest you. Everyone else could leave.
It was 1:20 a.m., Saturday, June 27, 1969, when four plainclothes police officers, two uniforms, a detective, and a Deputy Inspector raided the Stonewall Inn.
The Stonewall Riot Uprising
It was a rebellion, it was an uprising, it was a civil rights disobedience –
it wasn’t no damn riot.
Stormé DeLarverie
Female officers wanted to take customers in women’s clothing to the bathroom to verify their sex. But those dressed as women refused to go with the officers. Then the males refused to show their IDs.
Officers groped and kicked and forced their suspects into the wagons.
A scuffle broke out. A “typical New York butch” in handcuffs escaped police repeatedly. The officer hit her with his baton. Bleeding from her head, she punched the officer. (Witnesses identified the woman as Stormé, but there are conflicting accounts even from Stormé herself.) Dragged toward the wagon again, the woman looked at the bystanders and said, “Why don’t you guys do something?” An officer picked her up and heaved her into the back of the wagon. And the crowd went berserk.
The next night, thousands gathered in front of the Stonewall Inn and the uprising continued.
After Stonewall
Stormé was part of the official formation of the Stonewall Veteran’s Association on July 11, 1969. She served as Vice President of the association from 1998 to 2000. Active in the association for the rest of her life, she also took part in gay pride parades and watched out for anyone who needed help.
She called herself the “guardian of the lesbians in The Village.” She fearlessly opposed intolerance.
I can spot ugly in a minute.
Stormé DeLarverie
Through the 1980s and 1990s she lived at the famous Hotel Chelsea and worked as a singer and a bouncer. She patrolled local gay clubs and bars protecting others from anti-gay and anti-black prejudice
In addition, she also organized and performed at benefits for battered women and children.
In 2000 she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by SAGE (Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders).
Stormé patrolled and stood up against “ugliness” until she was 85.
After a long struggle with dementia, she died in her sleep on May 24, 2014.
Her Legacy
Director, Michelle Parkerson, created the film, Stormé: The Lady of the Jewel Box
In June 2019, Stormé was one of the inaugural fifty American “pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes” inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City’s Stonewall Inn, The US’s first national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history.
Once she was asked what pronouns she preferred, she is reported to have said, “Whatever makes YOU feel most comfortable,” and that “I’m still a woman.”
In an interview with In The Life in 2001, Stormé described herself:
I’m a human being that survived. I’ve helped other people survive.”
And that may be her biggest legacy of all.
A survivor of bullying, violence, and discrimination for her skin color and her lifestyle, Stormé DeLarverie was an icon, an inspiration, a staunch protector, and a drag kind with zero tolerance for discrimination.
The Stonewall Inn Today
Located at 53 Christopher Street, the Stonewall Inn still stands in the heart of New York City’s Historic Greenwich Village. They listed it in the National Register of Historic Places (1999), as a National Historic Landmark (2000), and a New York City Landmark (2015). It was also designated as a New York State Historic Site in 2016 and as a National Monument that same year.
In February 2026, the National Park Service (NPS) removed the rainbow Pride flag from the federal flagpole at the Stonewall National Monument to comply with a Department of the Interior directive limiting non-agency flags.
Outrage and lawsuits from LGBTQ+ and historic preservations groups. The administration settled the lawsuit in April 2026 and permanently restored the Pride flag to the official flagpole alongside the American flag and the NPS (National Parks Service) flag.
The Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, The first LGBTQIA+ visitor center in the National Park System, is located next door to the inn at 51 Christopher Street.
References
New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
Image Credits
Featured image: Stormé DeLarverie in a promotional photo used to advertise the Jewel Box Revue, ca. 1950s. Via wikipedia
Second image: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. (1950). Portait of Stormé DeLarverié Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/3d5ad480-03e9-013d-b106-0242ac110002
Third image: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. (1956). Stormé DeLarverié Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/e7450ae0-74bf-013b-1a70-0242ac110003
Fourth image by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons