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SPEAKER_08: Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Kate Kelly, host of Ordinary Equality and guest host for today's episode of Encyclopedia Wamanica. As a queer woman, I think it's vitally important to tell stories of women throughout history who have broken gender norms and really paved the way for those of us today. So I'm so excited to be here. There's a famous woman who was a woman who was a woman who was a woman There's a famous photo of today's queer icon that was taken in 1961. She sits on a park bench, one leg crossed and a cigarette in her hand. Her suit and tie fit her perfectly. And the title reads, The Lady Who Appears to Be a Gentleman. For the first half of her career, our icon made her living exactly that way as a drag king, singer and emcee. After the Stonewall uprising, she became known as the guardian angel of the village lesbians, patrolling the streets for what she called ugliness. Let's talk about Stormie de Lavie.
SPEAKER_08: Stormie de Lavie was born in 1920 in New Orleans. Her father was wealthy and white. Her mother was black and a servant in her father's home. Because interracial marriage was illegal at the time, Stormie says she was never given a birth certificate. But throughout her life, she celebrated her birthday on December 24th, Christmas Eve. Much of Stormie's childhood was marked by violent bullying. Her father had her privately educated, but that didn't stop kids from routinely beating her up for being both rich and biracial. Her father sat her down one day and told her that if she didn't stop running, she'd be running for the rest of her life. When I was 15, she said in a 2001 documentary, I stopped running and I haven't run a day since. Stormie started singing, often in local New Orleans clubs. It was there she began cultivating her deep rich baritone, a perfect fit for the jazz songs she often crooned. When she was around 18 years old, Stormie came out as gay. Fearing for her life as a biracial lesbian in the South, she moved to Chicago. Throughout the 1940s, Stormie performed on stage as Stormie Dale, a jazz singer. She presented as a woman in dresses with long hair and a flower behind one ear. After over a decade in show business, Stormie took a trip to Miami where she visited a venue called Danny's Jewel Box. The owners mentioned they needed some help with one of their shows. Stormie agreed to six months and she ended up staying for 14 years. The show became known as The Jewel Box Revue, a touring drag cabaret. Stormie became emcee, musical director, and occasionally the stage manager. At first, people warned Stormie, who was tall, broad shouldered, and handsome, but Stormie said not to do drag, that it would ruin her reputation, but Stormie blew them off. It was very easy, she said later. All I had to do was just be me and let people use their imaginations. It never changed me. I was still a woman. The Revue grew famous for their slogan, 25 men and one girl. Audiences were aware that the drag queens, female impersonators, were the 25 men. But who was the one girl? The Revue wouldn't come until the very end, when the emcee, Stormie, dressed up to the nines in an impeccable suit and sometimes a mustache, starred in a number called A Surprise with a Song. Stormie and the Revue performed in New York City and around the country, often putting on three to four shows a day. In the summer of 1969, Stormie was in New York, dressed as she often was in masculine clothes. At the time, New York had what was called a three-item rule. Anyone, though the law was targeted at queer folks, especially lesbians, had to be publicly dressed in at least three items of clothing that matched their sex assigned at birth. Laws like these antagonized Stormie. She was harassed for wearing men's clothes and at least twice arrested for wearing a dress because police were convinced she was a man in drag. But she was never one to back down from a fight and she wore whatever she wanted. In the early hours of June 28th, 1969, Stormie was at the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village. Police raided the club, hauling out patrons, including Stormie, under all kinds of homophobic groups. She was also a victim of the homophobic laws. A crowd began to form outside. People were tired and angry and fed up. Legend has it that a lesbian in a three-piece suit punched a police officer. The identity of that person has never been revealed, but a number of witnesses, and Stormie herself at one point, said she'd been the one to throw that first punch. The Stonewall Uprising. Those five days of riots shifted the course of queer history. They are why we celebrate Pride in the month of June. But Stormie didn't quite see them as a riot.
SPEAKER_06: That was no riot. Everybody said it was a riot. It was a disobedience and then they started fighting back. It was a rebellion. And once they got the hang of it, they rebelled quite well.
SPEAKER_08: MUSIC In the month after Stonewall, Stormie's partner of 25 years, a dancer named Diana, died. In the wake of her death, Stormie left show business. She was nearly 50, but strong and imposing with a license to carry. And she dedicated the rest of her life to protecting her chosen family. Until she was 85 years old, Stormie worked as a bouncer for several lesbian bars in lower Manhattan, though she described herself as a, quote, babysitter of all my people, all my boys and girls. She was known for roaming the streets, looking for what she called ugliness, bullying, rudeness, racist or homophobic behavior, anything that threatened her, quote, baby girls. She literally walked the streets of downtown Manhattan like a gay superhero, a friend told The New York Times in 2014. She was not to be messed with by any stretch of the imagination. Stormie lived her own life like one long rebellion. She challenged ideas around gender, performance, and sexuality. She put her body on the line to ensure acceptance and kindness. And she never, ever ran from a fight. Who's Stormie?
SPEAKER_05: I'm a human being that survived. I've helped other people survive.
SPEAKER_08: Stormie died in 2014 at the age of 93. All month, Encyclopedia Wamanica is celebrating pride. To get Wamanica in your inbox, check out the Wamanica weekly newsletter. Follow Encyclopedia Wamanica on Facebook and Instagram at Encyclopedia Wamanica. Special thanks to Encyclopedia Wamanica for having me on today's episode. You can find me at kate underscore kelly underscore esq on social media and on WMN's original podcast, Ordinary Equality. Happy pride, y'all.
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