Victoria Cruz, 1945/46 – Present
Victoria Cruz, 1945/46 – Present
An American LGBT rights activist and former domestic violence counselor, Cruz was born in Puerto Rico and later moved to Brooklyn, New York. At a very early age, she came out as transgender with the support of her family. She studied theater at Brooklyn College and worked as a hairdresser. While working at the Cobble HIll Nursing Home in Brookly, she was sexually assaulted by four female coworkers. She worked with the Anti-Violence Project to report the abuse, and two of the four women were convicted of harassment. This experience led her to work with the Anti-Violence Project to counsel other LGBT victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. A contemporary of Marsha P. Johnson and Silvia Rivera, Cruz dated one of the doormen at the Stonewall Inn. She took part in the first New York Gay Pride Parade in 1970. Cruz was featured prominently in the David France documentary, The Death and Life of Marsha P Johnson (2017), and she led the charge in investigating Johnson’s death (initially ruled a suicide).
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