Compton's Cafeteria Riot

From the desk of Robert Haaland:

In 1966, a group of drag queens, gay street hustlers, and transgender folks fought back against police oppression at a cafeteria in the Tenderloin called the Compton’s Cafeteria, three years prior to the Stonewall riots, the first known collective resistance by queers against institutional oppression. Moments like these, riots like this, whether it is the Stonewall riots in New York or in Compton’s Cafeteria riot in San Francisco, profoundly affect our community.  People fight back because they must.  They have no choice.  And yet we must honor them, honor their courage, their guts, and the sheer audacity of gay and transgender hustlers, and drag queens, mostly women of color, from the Tenderloin, smashing cops with their purses, kicking cops with their high heel shoes, burning down a newspaper stand, and vandalizing a police car after years and years of constant harassment.

I studied LGBT history as an undergraduate and of course read about the gay and lesbian history of San Francisco, about Harvey Milk, the movement in SF, about Harvey’s assassination by Dan White, the White Night Riots, but had never heard of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riots until I read an article by the renowned historian, Susan Stryker, who later made a documentary of the event, “Screaming Queens.”  We are fortunate that she documented this pivotal moment, a historical event that deepens our understanding of what happened in

San Francisco and the interconnectedness of our communities and the interconnectedness of our movements. 

We are also fortunate to have a community of activists that want to honor these brave people and make Compton Cafeteria riots part of our living history.  It doesn’t get much better than this.  A big thanks to Susan Stryker who helped bring out and shape our understanding of this moment, to Cecilia Chung who brought all of this together in the first place to ensure that we properly honor these women, to Gayle Roberts for continuously organizing our efforts to be able to fundraise for this event, to Jim “Jimmer” Cassiol, the Mayor’s LGBT liason who has helped us every step of the way, Martin Rawlings-Fein,  Billie-Jean Kanios, Allison Laureano, GLBT Historical Society, Theresa Sparks, Good Vibrations, Nikki Calma (AKA Tita Aida), Frameline, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and Victor Silverman.

We are the legacy of this movement and we must continue to have the nerve to fight back like the women did in 1966, and by honoring them, we remind ourselves to do our best to be like them.