johnson began working as a drag queen after coming out as gay. they chose the drag name "marsha p. johnson". "johnson" comes from the restaurant howard johnson's. they said that the "p" stood for "pay it no mind," a phrase they would use when people asked their gender. johnson referred to themself as gay, a transvestite, and a drag queen interchangeably and preferred "they," rather than "she," to be used as a pronoun. although they never referred to themself as being transgender, many modern scholars believe that was only because the term still was rarely used during their lifetime.