Google celebrates Marsha P Johnson with a doodle, thanks the LGBTQ+ rights activist for teaching people to stand up for themselves

NEW DELHI: Today in 2019, self-identified drag queen Marsha P. Johnson was posthumously honoured as a grand marshal of the New York City Pride March. Tech giant Google celebrated the LGBTQ+ rights activist and performer with a creative doodle as a part of Pride Month this year.

The doodle, which shows Marsha in her colourful ensemble against a backdrop of the Pride colours, was illustrated by Los Angeles-based guest artist Rob Gilliam.

Gilliam, who is a queer person of colour himself, said that the doodle was inspired by 'Johnson's vibrant personality' and New York's iconic architecture that she proudly marched through along with her colleagues. The artist had also created different concepts and sketches of the doodle.

Johnson was born on August 24, 1945 as Malcolm Michaels Jr in Elizabeth, New Jersey. After graduating high school in 1963, she moved to NYC’s Greenwich Village, a burgeoning cultural hub for LGBTQ+ people. She then legally changed her name to Marsha P Johnson. Her middle initial — 'P' — allegedly stood for her response to those who questioned her gender - 'Pay It No Mind'.

"A beloved and charismatic fixture in the LGBTQ+ community, Johnson is credited as one of the key leaders of the 1969 Stonewall uprising — widely regarded as a critical turning point for the international LGBTQ+ rights movement. The following year, she founded the Street Transvestite (now Transgender) Action Revolutionaries (STAR) with fellow transgender activist Sylvia Rivera. STAR was the first organization in the U.S. to be led by a trans woman of color and was the first to open North America’s first shelter for LGBTQ+ youth," Google Doodle's website said in a statement.

In 2019, New York City announced plans to erect statues of Johnson and Rivera in Greenwich Village, which will be one of the world’s first monuments in honor of transgender people.

Google also thanked Johnson for inspiring people everywhere to stand up for the freedom to be themselves.

The Marsha P. Johnson Institute (MPJI) partnership with the search engine giant for this doodle. Calling the collaboration a bold move, MPJI Founder and Executive Director Elle Hearns said that the doodle will inspire people to live freely, and reminds that Black and LGBTQ+ history is bigger than just a month.

The philanthropic arm of the California-based company, Google.org, also pledged to donate $500,000 to MPJI, which works to end violence against Black Trans women across the United States, and create a world where they are safe, valued, and treated with human dignity.

This funding, which builds on Google’s recent $2.4 million commitment to support LGBTQ+ community nonprofits around the world, will provide direct cash assistance to Black Trans people through the organisation’s COVID-19 relief efforts. MPJI is fiscally sponsored by the Social Good Fund.