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 Her mother was a black servant in her white father’s household. Born  in New Orleans in 1920, Stormé never knew the exact her date of birth. She chose December 24th. Her father gave her a private education, and her grandfather raised her. Interracial marriages were illegal in New Orleans, but according to Stormé, her mother never wanted for anything. Eventually, they moved, and her father legally married her mother. Facing 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,” she wore a leg brace for a year. Her injury left a scar, and she remained crippled in that leg. 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 […]