A new biography called Marsha, the joy and defiance of Marsha P. Johnson, tells the story of the

black transgender pioneers fight on the front lines of history as a leader in the early

LGBTQ rights movement. In the 2018 fictional film, Happy Birthday Marsha, activist and filmmaker

Tourmaline reimagined the hours that led to the 1969 Stonewall

riots. In this new book, as well as her children's book, One Day in June, Tourmaline tells

Johnson's story through her own words and those who knew her. I had a chance to speak with

Tourmaline earlier before today's Supreme Court decision.

Tourmaline joins me here now. Welcome to the News Hour. Thanks for joining us.

Thanks so much for having me. So you already explored a large part of Marsha's life through that film that we mentioned. What made you want to return to it in a deeper way in book form?

So I have been documenting, archiving, and sharing the story of Marsha B. Johnson for 20 years now.

It has been such a gift to get to know different aspects of Marsha's life from, you know, I moved to

New York when I was 19 and it was right shortly after then that I

started to hear about Marcia in the West Village and meet her friends and her family.

And I wanted to make sure that everyone would be able to receive the gift of knowing Marcia

that I got to have.

In researching the spoken doing interviews, did you discover anything new about her that

surprised you?

You didn't know before?

Yeah, absolutely.

Marcia was a Jersey girl.

You know, she was from Elizabeth, New Jersey, and she was born into a really beautiful family, the Michael's family.

That's where she started to perform.

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