Great Wall Institute: The Process of the Great Wall of Los AngelesMain MenuResearch of the DecadesResearch1960s Illustration DevelopmentIllustration DevelopmentPlaylists of the DecadesPlaylistssparcinla.org185fc5b2219f38c7b63f42d87efaf997127ba4fcGreat Wall Institute - Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC)
Compton's Cafeteria riot: a historic act of trans resistance, three years before Stonewall
1media/Screen Shot 2023-03-27 at 1.51.39 PM_thumb.png2023-03-27T20:53:08+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a4911“In 1966, three years before the world-famous Stonewall riot in New York, a group of trans women in San Francisco stood up to police inside Gene Compton’s Cafeteria, an all-night restaurant in the Tenderloin neighborhood and popular queer gathering spot. A trans woman fed up with the harassment and abuse is said to have thrown a cup of coffee in an officer’s face, sparking a chaotic riot and unprecedented moment of trans resistance to police violence. “These ladies took the bullets for us,” said Personna, a performer and activist who went to Compton’s Cafeteria as a teenager in the 1960s and now lives down the street. “Everyone in our community stands on their shoulders.” As LGBT people across the US celebrate the 50th anniversary of Stonewall this month, trans community organizers in San Francisco are fighting to cement the legacy of their own groundbreaking riot – and have officially designated the world’s first-ever “trans cultural district” in the Tenderloin. The cultural district is also mobilizing to protect black trans women from displacement, as the San Francisco neighborhood rapidly gentrifies.”plain2023-03-27T20:53:08+00:001966Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49