Compton’s Cafeteria Site, The Tenderloin, San Francisco

InSapphoWeTrust posted a photo:

I’m walking around the gritty working-class district known as the Tenderloin, and this currently-vacant corner store is a historical site.

The LGBT community had been gathering in San Francisco since World War II, and they were frequently the subject of police raids at their gathering spots. Additionally, anti-crossdressing laws meant that transgender women were targeted in particular. In August 1966, at Compton’s Cafeteria located at this spot, there was a police raid as usual – and it sparked a fierce resistance from the drag queens and trans women in presence. This predated the famous Stonewall Riot in New York City by nearly 3 years.

Today, this area of the Tenderloin has become the world’s first officially designated Transgender District, and one of the traffic light pole has the transgender colors painted to mark the fact. Additionally, this section of Taylor Street has been renamed Gene Compton’s Cafeteria Way, and the intersecting Turk Street renamed Vicki Mar Lane, to commemorate the history.