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Donna Personna

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Donna Personna in 2018

Donna Personna (born 1946) is a transgender rights activist[1] and fine art artist, who focuses in photography, painting, and mixed media. Personna was friends with The Cockettes and she played a part in Elevator Girls in Bondage.[2] Personna co-wrote a play about the Compton Cafeteria riot, one of the first recorded LGBT-related riots in United States history, and marking the beginning of transgender activism in San Francisco.[3]

Biography

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Personna and San Francisco Mayor London Breed raise the trans pride flag outside City Hall, 2023.

Personna was born in Texas[4] in 1946 then moved to San Jose, California, at the age of one and moved to San Francisco at age 19.[5]

Personna has served on the boards of the Trans March and Transgender Day of Remembrance.[6]

In 2018, she raised San Francisco's first Transgender flag at San Francisco City Hall with Mayor London Breed. In 2019, she was a Grand marshal of the San Francisco Pride Parade.[7]

Filmography

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Personna was the subject of the 2013 Iris Prize-winning short film My Mother and was featured in the 2014 film Beautiful by Night.[8] She was interviewed for the 2018 documentary, Ruminations.[9]

Personna's story is a major part of The Compton's Cafeteria Riot, an interactive play produced by the Tenderloin Museum.[10]

References

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  1. ^ "'Denying our very humanity:' Trump proposal wounds Bay Area transgender community". www.msn.com. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  2. ^ "SF Pride Lifetime Achievement Honoree: Donna Personna | Commonwealth Club". www.commonwealthclub.org. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  3. ^ Boyd, Nan Alamilla (2004). "San Francisco" in the Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered History in America, Ed. Marc Stein. Vol. 3. Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 71–78.
  4. ^ "Iconic Drag Performer You Should Know: Donna Personna". Broke-Ass Stuart's Website. Retrieved 2025-01-28.
  5. ^ "With six decades of stories, Tenderloin icon Donna Personna is having a moment – SFChronicle.com". www.sfchronicle.com. 2017-10-31. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  6. ^ "Donna Personna". San Francisco Pride. 2019-04-14. Archived from the original on 2019-07-05. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  7. ^ Levin, Sam (2019-06-21). "Compton's Cafeteria riot: a historic act of trans resistance, three years before Stonewall". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  8. ^ "Donna Personna – Compton's Cafeteria Riot". Archived from the original on 2019-07-05. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  9. ^ Ruminations, retrieved 2019-07-05
  10. ^ "The Donna Personna Portraits Project". Tenderloin Museum. Archived from the original on 2019-07-05. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
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