A memorial plaque commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot was installed in San Francisco at 12pm on Thursday, June 22nd, at the corner of Turk and Taylor Streets. The 1966 riot in the Tenderloin was the first known instance of transgender resistance to police harassment in the U.S. National and local community activists present will include The Reverend Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church, author/activists Leslie Feinberg and Jamison Green, National Center for Transgender Equality Executive Director Mara Keisling, and representatives of the San Francisco Mayor’s Office, SF Human Rights Commission, and SF Police Commission. The commemoration event, which will take place at Oshun Center, 101 Taylor Street, is sponsored in part by Good Vibrations. Among those honored were several transgender individuals who were active in the community 40 years ago, and retired SFPD Officer Elliott Blackstone, who was the first SFPD liaison to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities. Photos | Video

San Francisco activists and allies began their LGBT civil rights movement in 1966, three years prior to the famous rioting at New York’s Stonewall Inn, which is popularly credited as the start of the Gay Freedom Movement. The night of the riot in August, 1966 was normal, with the usual assortment of transgender people, young street hustlers, and down-and-out regulars in Gene Compton's Cafeteria. The management, annoyed by the noisy crowd at one table, called the police. When a surly cop, accustomed to manhandling Compton's clientele, attempted to arrest one of the queens, she threw her coffee in his face. Mayhem erupted, with windows breaking, furniture flying through the air, and fighting with police reinforcements in the street.

“In many ways, we can attribute our success in the transgender civil rights movement and the larger LGBT movement to our courageous predecessors at Compton’s Cafeteria,” says SF Human Rights Commissioner Cecilia Chung. “Unexpected allies... fought by our side against prejudice and stigma at a time when our cries seemed to be ignored, and helped to create a ripple of positive change.” Filmmakers Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman, co-producer/directors of the film “Screaming Queens,” which documents the social conditions that led to the riot, will speak at the Thursday event. Their film will be screened on KQED TV at 9:30pm on June 29th, and several times on June 30th. More screenings

Compton's Cafeteria Riot website | Transgender Pride | Announcement from March kickoff of riot commemoration | In Honor of the Compton’s Riot: Remembering Philly’s Screaming Queens