Victoria Cruz, Stonewall hero and trans activist, dies at 79

Victoria Cruz, one of the matriarchs of New York City's transgender community, has died. She was 79.It was 57 years ago that the out trans Latina witnessed history at Stonewall, the birth of what was originally called the gay rights movement, and then changed the personal history of thousands of New Yorkers by working tirelessly to help those targeted because of their orientation, identity and medical status.Cruz worked on behalf of victims of violence in New York City, after being one herself. Thirty years ago, she was repeatedly harassed and sexually assaulted by co-workers at at a nursing home in Brooklyn. “I was very angry. Very angry,” Cruz told Vanity Fair in 2017 in a profile to promote the Netflix film, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson. On that day in 1996, four women grabbed at her breasts and crotch and hurled slurs at her. She said the attack shattered her as she navigated the world as a woman. “The worst part of it is that I couldn’t feel the ground beneath me.” It was so bad that one day she started bringing knife to work, for both protection and to be ready to fight back, but decided against committing violence herself. A friend referred her to the New York City Anti-Violence Project. Not only did she find support there, the organization helped her file police reports. That led to protests outside the nursing home, as the New York Daily News reported in 1997, and the arrests of two of the four co-workers. They were convicted of harassment in one of the first trials in New York State in which someone was held legally accountable for anti-trans violence.Christine Quinn, who later became the first female and first openly gay speaker of the New York City Council, took her on as a volunteer and eventually hired her at the NYCAVP's front desk and hotline. Cruz spent 17 years at the nonprofit, helping others, and focused especially on domestic abuse. But as The New York Times reported, her role there and in the LGBTQ+ community was known far