TRANSGENDER CIVIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT COMMEMORATES 40 YEARS OF ACTIVISM

A plaque commemorating the first known instance of transgender resistance to police harassment in the U.S. will be installed on June 22nd at the corner of Turk and Taylor Streets in San Francisco. A brief ceremony will begin at Noon at Oshun Center, 101 Taylor Street. Representatives of the Office of the Mayor, the Human Rights Commission, and the Police Commission will speak, along with transgender community members who were active in the community when the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot took place 40 years ago.

101 Taylor is the site where Gene Compton’s Cafeteria once stood. The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot was not publicized when it occurred in August 1966, but was discovered in historical research by Susan Stryker, Ph.D., and is the subject of the documentary film, “Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria.”

The film won an Emmy for “Outstanding Achievement, Historical/Cultural Program Special” at the Northern California Emmy Awards last month. “This is a great honor for us and a real recognition by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences of the importance of recovering the lost history of transgender militancy,” said film co-producer Victor Silverman. Filmmakers Stryker and Silverman will also speak at the June 22nd ceremony.

The ceremony will also honor retired SFPD Officer Elliot Blackstone, who was an unlikely early champion for gay, lesbian, and transsexual civil rights and community development. Mara Keisling, Executive Director for the National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, D.C., will also speak. Author and community activist Jamison Green will serve as master of ceremonies.

Commemoration activities are sponsored in part by Good Vibrations, San Francisco's legendary destination for accurate information about sex.

There will be opportunities for media interviews immediately following the brief presentations. For more information, please visit: http://www.comptonscafeteriariot.org