American activist Marsha P. Johnson was BOTD in 1945. Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey to a working-class family, she was assigned male at birth, and identified as female from early childhood, and ran away to New York at 17, supporting herself as a sex worker. Though accounts differ, she appears to have been on the front lines of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, which kickstarting the modern gay liberation movement. She later co-founded the Gay Liberation Front and the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries with her friend and mentee Sylvia Rivera, providing support for homeless gay and trans youth. In 1970, she marched in New York’s first Gay Pride rally, becoming known as “The Mayor of Christopher Street”. A popular figure in New York’s gay and arts scene, she modelled for Andy Warhol and performed with drag troupe Hot Peaches. In the 1980s, she campaigned with ACT-UP and the Gay Men’s Health Crisis. Johnson suffered from mental illness for most of her life and was frequently hospitalised. Diagnosed HIV positive in 1990, she spoke openly about her condition in interviews. In 1992, her body was found floating in the Hudson River. She was 47. Her death was ruled a suicide, though it is widely suspected that she was murdered, possibly due to her recent protests about police violence towards queer people. In 2002, her death was reclassified as “undetermined”. Among many posthumous tributes, Johnson was inducted into the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at the Stonewall Memorial in New York City.