“I am tired of seeing my children — I call everybody including yous in this room, you are all my children. I am tired of seeing homeless transgender children, young, gay, youth children.”

Sylvia Rivera in a speech archived here…

A Prayer to St. Sylvia Rivera
(c) Geoffrey Stewart 2024

Across the Universe,
Across the years & miles,
Across the Veil,
To Sylvia Rivera do I call,
Our Lady of Civil & Uncivil Disobedience,
To Sylvia Rivera do I call,
Fierce protector of the Lost & Abandoned
To Sylvia Rivera do I call,
Revolutionary & Mother of us All,

Sylvia, the kids are scared.

A lot of the same old bastards are back Ms. Sylvia,
The Assimilationists & The A-holes,
The religious nuts, the rightwing nuts,
The greedy & the selfish,
The misinformed, & the just plain evil.
They are all back & going after everybody all at once,
They are trying to turn back the clock,
Turn back progress,
Turn things back to what they call the Good Old Days,
When people like us could be beaten, could be killed,
To ‘Straighten’ that moral arc of the Universe AWAY from Justice.

They want to turn things back to what they call the Good Old Days,
When people like us could be beaten, could be killed,
Could be treated like so much dirt beneath their boot heels.

They are saying the kids are indoctrinated,
They are saying the kids are confused,
They are saying the kids can’t possibly know who they are and what they want,
They are saying ‘protect the Women & children’,
All the while finding new ways to torment the kids,
Our kids, the kids we were,
To torment us all.

I’ll tell you Ms. Sylvia,
A lot of these kids are the kids we wish we could have been!
They are smart these kids, and courageous!
Committed to Justice, to Liberation, to The Revolution,
Most wonderful of all Ms. Sylvia,
So many of these kids are cherished and Loved!
Until those people came back they did not have to grow up in fear!

A lot of these kids are scared, Ms. Sylvia.
Hell, a lot of the adults are too,
Their parents and families are scared,
The adults who remember being them are scared,

Please, Sylvia,
Provide us what protection you can,
Grant us your guidance & counsel,
Help us to find true friends & chosen family,
Lend us your courage & perseverance in these fearful times,
Spare us some of your fire and fury that we might find our own,
And then let us do you proud!