Mariah Lopez Biography

Mariah Lopez (born April 27, 1985) is an American transgender activist. She is the executive director for STARR (Strategic Trans Alliance for Radical Reform), the oldest transgender rights advocacy group in the United States. The group was originally formed by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson in 1970 under the name Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. Both Marsha and Sylvia have since passed, but while alive decided Mariah would be a perfect fit to lead STARR in a new direction. STARR officially re-opened to the public on June 26, 2015 after years of being defunct then being a "casual" advocacy group.

With STARR and it's other members including Kristen Parker (and adult actress TS Madison Hinton), they work directly with the District Attorney's office and New York cold case homicide detectives on cases involving murdered transgender women to re-open their cases and test evidence with new technology not previously available. The homicides include those of: Venus Xtravaganza (documentary participant, performer), Marsha P. Johnson (activist), Duanna Johnson, and Islan Nettles (student, aspiring fashion designer) to name a few. So far they have successfully re-opened ten cold case homicides. STARR likes to focus on older cases as a statement to criminals both past and present; letting future criminals know that there's no statute of limitation on murder and that if prosecuted, killers who murdered trans women in the past cannot get away with it, no matter how old the crime.

Currently Mariah is working with investigators to exhaust every form of forensic technology to test where exactly her gay mother (term used in the ballroom community) Marsha went in the Hudson River when she was killed. This recent development came after the police decided to close Johnson's case; Lopez was not pleased because she believes with her knowledge of forensics, investigators did not use all of their power to study Marsha's case. It is important to know where Johnson went in the water to find exactly where she was killed and go from there.

Lopez also announced in early 2015 that she and David France (How to Survive a Plague) are filming a documentary about Mariah, as of now is currently untitled. It was revealed that David is: writing, directing, and producing the project which will also discuss STARR's history, Sylvia and Marsha's legacy as activists and prominent figures in LGBT history. The movie is tentatively due for release sometime in 2016.