Riot at Gene Compton's Cafeteria
The "T" in the LGBT Movement...
Three years before the famous rioting at New York's Stonewall Inn , there was a riot in San Francisco at Gene Compton's Cafeteria .
It's a hot August night in San Francisco in 1966 -- three years before the famed Stonewall. Compton's Cafeteria, in the seedy Tenderloin district, is hopping with its usual assortment of transgender people, young street hustlers, and down-and-out regulars. The management, annoyed by the noisy crowd at one table, calls the police. When a surly cop, accustomed to manhandling Compton's clientele, attempts to arrest one of the queens, she throws her coffee in his face. Mayhem erupts -- windows break, furniture flies through the air. Police reinforcements arrive, and the fighting spills into the street. For the first time, the drag queens band together to fight back, getting the better of the cops, whom they kick and stomp with their high-heeled shoes and beat with their heavy purses. For everyone at Compton's that night, one thing was certain -- things would never be the same again.
This act of resistance was a dramatic turning point for the transgender community, and the beginning of a new human rights struggle that continues to this very day. For almost 40 years, it was an almost-forgotten footnote until the recent film documentary Screaming Queens recovered the story for today's audiences.
Our Vision
The 40th Anniversary of the riot at Gene Compton's Cafeteria reprsents a vision shared by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities. This is an opportunity to celebrate transgender history and recognize community leaders and allies; an opportunity to inspire and mobilize a new generation of LGBTQ community activists; an opportuntiy to
bring awareness of transgender challenges and accomplishments to a broader audience. Most importantly, we are taking this opportunity to express our profound gratitude to an extraordianary hero - Sgt. Elliot Blackstone - a visionary and a champion when we had no voice.
History of San Francisco LGBT Movement
In the streets of the Tenderloin, at Turk and Taylor on a hot August night in 1966, Gays rose up angry at the constant police harassment of the drag-queens by the police. It had to be the first ever recorded violence by Gays against police anywhere. For on that evening when the SFPD paddy wagon drove up to make their “usual” sweeps of the streets, Gays this time did not go willingly. It began when the police came into a cafeteria, still located there at Turk and Taylor, Compton’s, to do their usual job of hassling the drag-queens and hair-fairies and hustlers setting at the table. <--- Read More --->
