[medicine]

don’t forget to read about the compton’s cafeteria riot in san francisco, one of the first riots comprised of trans women and drag queens in the united states before stonewall. trans women and drag queens would spend time in gene compton’s cafeteria because they were unwelcome in gay bars, and the police would raid the cafeteria in an attempt to close down one of the few respites that trans women and drag queens had. the riot broke out when a trans woman, who was being arrested by a cop, threw coffee in the cop’s face. a documentary was made about it, called “screaming queens: the riot at compton’s cafeteria.”  you can watch some of the it here.

[teacakes]

This is really important, especially because it more directly intersected with queer and trans youth homelessness than did Stonewall. There is a great reading about the event and its surrounding political activism by Jennifer Worley called “‘Street Power’ and the Claiming of Public Space: San Francisco’s ‘Vanguard’ and Pre-Stonewall Queer Radicalism,” which includes coverage of the creation of Vanguard and its members.